Limits of A legendary being
by Solar2912
Summary: Humans don't like what they don't understand. Yet some are cruel and greedy willing to sacrifice anything for their goals. Finally free of such a person's clutches, Naruto starts on a new life. Yet, can ice and fire truly be together?
1. Chapter 1 Humans greed

A/N) Recent: I will try not to do it, but when I have to update chapters i just gotta.

It's been quite some time since I posted something here. The last time I did…let's just say I reread what I wrote and decided that it was an embarrassment to me. Anyways this idea was quite recent and just came to me in the spur of the moment. I'll probably finish this story eventually. I just can't guarantee routine updates. Unless…maybe…I got some support…hehe

Disclaimer: I hereby claim that I the author of the fanfic below do no in any shape or form own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, Rosario + Vampire and Rosarion + Vampire capu2. However the ideas and storyline are mine.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

**Chapter 1: Humans' greed **

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."  
― Albert Einstein

.

.

.

Hashirama The first Hokage of the Konoha, The village hidden in the leaves. No one deny that he was a powerful shinobi. When his enemies think about they see a force that should have been categorised as a force of nature, but even they have to admit that he was a man that deserved respect. When the typical person thought of him they would think of an unstoppable force that brought peace to the Elemental Nations. When the people of Konoha thought of him they would think of a God's gift to them.

Before him the elemental nations was made of many clans who constantly warred and fought for land and resources. Bloodshed and pain were a typical thing in life as battles were fought every day. Despite all this the worst were the Bijuu, tailed beasts. They were beasts of immense power rivalled only by another. They roamed the land and terrorised the humans of the Elemental Nations.

Then came the Senju and the Uchiha clans. The two clans of ninja that were rivalled only by each other. When one fought the other was called to fight back. Then one day both clans decided that they had enough of the bloodshed and chaos that plagued them every day. Hence the leaders of both clans came together and had an agreement. They would create a new system of villages and that would be unstoppable to any other human force in the world at the time. They had a single deciding battle which destroyed the mountains and drained oceans to decide who would lead the new village. In the end Hashirama won and under him came the first Hidden village, The village hidden in the leaves, Konoha.

Then Hashirama had used his Mokuton which was capable of subduing the Great Bijuu together with fuinjutsu from another clan to seal the Bijuu. The strongest was sealed into his wife while the other eight were temporarily sealed into objects and sent out to the four other Hidden villages which had formed soon after Konoha. Hashirama said this was to create a power balance in the Elemental Nations and promote peace. No one thought otherwise, no one except his own wife.

Hashirama Senju's wife Mito Uzumaki knew otherwise. She came from the Uzumaki clan which resided in The village hidden in the Whirpools, Uzushiogakure. To the Elemental Nations not much was known about the Uzumaki clan. What they knew was that the Uzumaki specialised in fuinjutsu and that the Uzumaki had advanced healing capabilities and longevity. That the Uzumaki were extremely loyal to their village and would not stop in battle even if it meant their deaths.

However many things were not known to many. The Uzumaki had a royal class that Uzumaki Mito as a part off. The royal class were also in fact not human. They were legendary beings that were already there before the gods, beings that could match up to the gods themselves. Beings who could never truly die. While most of these beings had gone to eternal sleep eons ago when they felt that they were no longer needed .A small family of themwere never able to join the others in their sleep. They decided to simply watch as time passed by. They watched as cvilisations grew and fell, as species and races helped and destroyed one another. One thing never changed throughout though and that was their familial bonds to one another. Of the many things they grew to agree on as they watched was that generally humans were sad and disgusting creatures who constantly fought without proper cause.

So when one day they came across a group of humans who were different they decided to intervene.

.

.

.

A long time ago a group of wanderers and survivors had built a village on an island. They were people who had difficult pasts and always cherished family. They flourished since they were separated from the rest of the Elemental Nations at the time and away from the chaos that plagued the rest of the world. They had all once been part of the chaos but had managed to escape. Over time they became a big family and hence started the loyalty they would be known for generations later.

Then one day a minor Ninja clan had discovered them and their leader who was greedy and cruel decided to make slaves of them. The people were not warriors and especially not Ninja. They had no means to defend themselves against enemy Ninja. So they prayed. However they did not they leave their fates entirely to chance. They took up arms and prepared against the enemy and to their credit never once did any infighting occur. For they had always held onto and upheld one belief, family before anything and everything else.

Fortunately for them the preparations they made to fend off the attackers were never tried and used as a group of beings did answer their prayer. Impressed by their loyalty for family they decided that such a thing was too precious to be destroyed by human greed and had to be protected.

On the day the attack was imminent. Massive whirlpools burst forth and surrounded the island. The attackers never had a chance as they were dragged down to the deepest depths of the ocean, crushed by the immense pressure. Ships were torn apart and flung far away and enemy ninja walking on water simply met their watery graves for even they could not out power the whirlpools. Where the villagers had gathered and were prepared to fight to their last breath immense creatures of fire formed a circle around them. The creatures were covered in fire and took the form a huge birds. The birds of fire landed around the villagers and for a few tense minutes simply stared, almost like they were judging the people they had just saved. Suddenly one of the birds let out a small call and every villager tensed. Then they were bathed in a bright light as they froze and prepared for their deaths. Only to find seconds later humanoid beings of immense grace and beauty in the place of the fiery birds.

The otherworldly beings had found the people worthy. They thought the people how to defend themselves, how to build a more advanced systems while always making sure that they remembered their loyalty for family. The people were also thought fuinjutsu a lost art to humans till now and were blessed by the phoenixes to have greater bodies than others. Overtime the phoenixes and the villagers became so closely attached they became family to each other. Eventually the phoenixes decided to stay in the human forms and settle down in the village and together as a family they decided to name the village Uzushiogakure, the village hidden in the whirlpools in honour of the event that had changed their fates.

.

.

.

Even after many generations they Uzumaki had not lost their most important belief. This is also why Mito Uzumaki knew that her husband was not exactly the greatest person in the world. Mito was part of the royal class and hence a phoenix but since she was still young, relative to her species, she could not fully access her powers yet. When she had fallen for Hashirama her people had supported her, even when she left the island for her husband. When Uzushiogakure was attacked by three other Hidden villages she had begged her husband to send Konoha troops to support her birth village. He had told her that he would send help. When news that her village was defeated and destroyed she was utterly shocked and fell into despair. Hashirama though had never once comforted her throughout it. She eventually became suspicious and paranoid. One day she had went to his office and under the guise of wanting to spend a day together got Hashirama out of his office. She left a shadow clone of herself and when they left her clone went through the files concerning Uzushiogakure. She was shocked at what she had found out. Hashirama had never sent help. When she confronted him about it he had in response grew mad and said a statement that shocked Mito to her core.

"When you came here you became a part of the leaf and hence you should always put the leaf above all else, Uzushiogakure was nothing but a stepping stone for Konoha." Her husband had cruely told her. Their relationship practically shattered then and there. Eventually Mito and Hashirma fought. Near the ending Hashirama was almost defeated as even he could not go against a phoenix, an immortal bird, and hope to win. However Mito could not bear to deal the last blow, for she still held love for Hashirama in the deepest corners of her heart. That single hesitation was all Hashirama needed. Apparently he had known this would happen eventually and thus he had prepared one of her most powerful beforehand. He had summoned forth the Shinigami and Mito was sealed into the Shinigami itself.

Mito greatest mistake was falling for Hashirama.

However Hashirama was not happy.

Hashirama being an extremely strong and cunning shinobi knew that without the backing of phoenixes Konoha would eventually lose its position as the strongest. So for years he searched for a way to cement Konoha's power without much success. That was until he received news from a squad of ninja sent to Uzushiogakure to take any items worth taking. The ninja had found a survivor. The minute Hashirama saw her he knew that he had found another way. He had found another member of the royal class.

Uzumaki Kushina was a phoenix. With seals taken from The Uzumaki they held her deep under Konoha and sought to break her every day, for if he could not have to phoenixes helping Konoha willingly, then he would have them forced to do it. They tried every method they knew but she never broke. For decades she held and nothing Hashirama tried worked. Then Hashirama was killed in battle and his brother, Tobirama, took over who took over as the Second Hokage also failed. Then came the third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. Who then after also failing to break Kushina picked another successor, Minato Namikaze. Minato would then be the one to come up with an idea that would have a phoenix as a loyal weapon to Konoha. Together they schemed and after months they were convinced they had a fool proof plan.

.

.

.

**The first phase:**

When Minato Namikaze takes over the Hokage position he will 'release' Kushina and have her temporarily stay at the Hokage mansion. Then convince her that he was sincerely sorry for what the past Hokage's had done.

'Soft…' Were the thoughts of a certain redhead as her eyes blinked open. Soon after she immediately froze as she realised that she wasn't in her cell anymore. She immediately sat up only to notice a blonde spiky haired man apparently sleeping by her bedside. She immediately tensed when she saw the Hokage hat on his head. This was also picked up by the blonde. "Don't worry, I'm not like my predecessors. In fact I would like to apologise for all that they have done to you." At hearing this Kushina face changed from defiance to shock to disbelief and finally relief. Tears started to roll down her face as she attached herself to Minato and cried out tears of joy.

**The second phase:**

Minato will attempt to get Kushina to love him and marry him. Then they are to have a baby. After Kushina has given birth Minato is to reveal parts of the plan to Kushina so that she will get destructive. Minato will lead her to several civilian populated areas of Konoha and make sure that Kushina causes some destruction. Minato will then defeat her like Hashiram did.

The newlywed couple sat side by set on the roof of the Hokage mansion as they enjoyed each other's presence. A few others later they had consummated their marriage. Nine months later Kushina had given birth to a new baby. "Let me hold my Naruto." Kushina whispered out quietly. She was met with no response. She looked at Minato's face only to see a cruel smirk. "Finally I can stop this little charade, your baby will be the perfect weapon for Konoha!" sneered out Minato as he laughed at Kushina's plight. Just like he predicted Kushina transforms into a phoenix but due to the betrayal and despair she goes into a frenzy.

The cries of villagers being burned alive rang throughout that night before The Foruth Hokage 'defeated' the demon bird which attacked their village.

**The third phase**: Predicting the villagers reaction Minato will then proceed to make the baby's life in Konoha hell. Sarutobi will then 'care' for the baby and manipulate the baby into becoming Konoha's loyal weapon.

"Konoha, despite what many of you think I have no killed the demon. Instead I have only managed to weaken it and trap it into the form of a child. However the demon child must not be killed because if he is killed than he will regain its powers and kill us all." Shouted the Fourth Hokage to his village while holding up a baby for the village to see.

That was the start of a very painful childhood for Naruto Uzumaki.

"Why jiji?" whispered a blonde boy as tears streamed down his face.

"The villagers are simply grieving Naruto, remember the demon that attacked them 7 years ago hurt many of them, do not blame them for it. Unfortunately you remind them of the demon. Try and forgive them." Said the Sarutobi in a kind old voice.

.

.

.

The plan was to turn the baby into Konoha's greates weapon and cement Konoha's position as the strongest. Should the plan fail or the demon child not be loyal to Konoha there were less pleasant alternatives.

From the minute the child was born he had seals placed onto him. The seals that were placed on the child enabled to Hokage to restrict the child's powers, both human and phoenix. They would enable to Hokage to always know the child's location and even kill the child should the child ever pose a threat to Konoha.

The plan was perfect in a way, it should have guaranteed that Konoha had a powerful weapon. However humans in their greed had severely underestimated demons and monsters too much. Plans have a tendency to go awry, and things never went according to even the most well thought plan.

On Naruto's eighth birthday they boy was in the forest of death. Planning to hide there away from the villagers for every year on his birthday it was when the beatings were the worst. He had found a cave and had stashed in in enough supplies to last him a few weeks. Now all he could do was hope no one found him. Unfortunately for him this year Konoha's snake mistress was roped into finding him lest she got into trouble with the Konoha council. Konoha's snake mistress, Anko lives in the forest of death and it wasn't hard finding a blonde with not stealth training. Soon Naruto felt several snakes bite into his flesh, the snake venom soon incapacitated him before he could even scream.

"Die Demon Scum!" Naruto woke up screaming in pain as he found a katana buried up to its hilt in his gut. He was bound to a stake in the middle of the forest and villagers both civilians and ninja surrounded him. Everyone had cruel smirks and sneers on their faces as they all rushed in to get a piece of the demon brat. Fifteen minutes later a squad of ANBU surrounded the boy and the crowd paused. For ANBU were elite ninja under the direct command of the Hokage. Sadly the uncertainty in the villagers was replaced with glee as the squad quickly faced the boy and started to form series of hand signs.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu(Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu)!" shouted the squad of ANBU is unison. Soon the cheering of the crowd followed as they chanted and cheered the demons' death.

Unfortunately for them, a phoenix was a legendary bird of fire. The fireballs launched at the boy had covered the area in smoke. Oddly the fact that there were no shouts of pain from the demon was missed by everyone. Naruto found himself surprisingly unhurt from the fire. 'Did I just absorb the fire?' thought Naruto. The power Naruto gained from the fire broke the seals placed on him from birth. Then a feeling of power, euphoria and completion filled Naruto's body. The crowd the civilians and Ninja all stopped as they felt a pulse of unbridled power from the centre where the demon was. Then another pulse came, this one evens stronger even making a crater around the centre. Soon even more pulses followed each stronger than the other. Before the crowd even thought to run though the pulses stopped. Then a fiery explosion big enough to destroy the whole forest and then some came from the centre. Everyone there was caught, people were simply incinerated down to their bones. Even the metal gear the ninja had melted onto the landscape. Then a second explosion occurred within the first. This one much larger and expanded over a third of Konoha. All of a sudden what looked like a tear appeared in at the origin of the explosions and the body of a young child was sucked in. Then the tear closed up like it was never there.

.

.

.

Somewhere else in a distant part of the world.

A family of phoenixes sensed the birth of a new phoenix, with a very similar energy signature to their own. Immediately they took off in search of what could be a lost family member.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

A/N) This chapter is finished. Oh and this story IS linked to Rosario + Vampire, only that this chapter isn't. It's like setting a foundation.


	2. Chapter 2 Monsters can be humane

A/N) This will probably be Naruto/Mizore. Besides there's too little of them. Although I do feel bad about leaving Moka … I'll just see where this story goes.

By the way, I know my folklore so I'll tell you guys now that phoenixes in my story don't exactly follow folklore. I changed many things…

Disclaimer: I hereby claim that I the author of the fanfic below do not in any shape or form own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, Rosario + Vampire and Rosario + Vampire capu2. However the ideas and storyline are mine.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

**Chapter 2: Monsters can be humane**

"..the most identifying trait of humanity is our ability to be inhumane to one another."  
― Dean Koontz, _Odd Thomas_.

.

.

.

Tsurara Shirayuki and Mizore Shirayuki sat together on a simple blue mat as they slowly ate shaved ice. They watched the horizon quietly enjoying the peace they had. The mountain range in front of them made for a very nice landscape, on one of the mountains was the village they lived in. They themselves were on a mountain, near the peak on a wide expanse of flattish land. Despite the snow-capped mountain they both only wore simple white kimonos. Tsurara's kimono which had a violet-blue line running through the collar was held together with a violet obiage[2], a Byzantium[1] obi[3] and an indigo obi-jime[4]. Mizore's kimono only extended to her knees and had a red-violet collar with a similar coloured simple obi holding it together. The temperature was rather comfortable to them actually. They were having a mother daughter day together and this was how they often liked to spend their time. They were rather content to simply sit there and watch. Their minds relaxed and cleared of negative things.

Until what appeared to be tear simply appeared in front of them twenty metres away. Shocked they got up quickly as their muscles tensed and after glancing at each other for a moment decided to cautiously approach the 'tear'.

'If there's even the slightest chance this might be a danger to our village then I'll have to deal with it.' Thought Tsurara as they approached in positions that would let them counter if something happened. Walking slowly toward the 'tear' with stoic faces they were suddenly hit by a wave of energy that exploded from the 'tear'. Then the area around the 'tear' started to warm up. The snow around it was starting to melt. Tsurara being more resistant to heat controlled her breathing then quickly took out a sucker, put it in her mouth and her body temperature cooled. Unfortunately her daughter, Mizore, was not as resistant to heat as she was and fell onto her hands and knees.

'Hot!' Mizore started to sweat and she was feeling weaker by the second. Her vision started to blur and she started to breathe heavily. 'It's too hot' her limbs were starting to feel heavy. Tsurara quickly acted though, she chilled the area around Mizore with her control over ice and unwrapping another sucker she placed it into her daughter's mouth.

"Better now dear?" asked Tsurara to her daughter stoically.

"Yes. Arigato haha." Replied Mizore similarly stoically as she slowly got up, wary of her body's state, while controlling her breathing.

With that both Yuki-onna once more approached the 'tear' again but with their cryokinesis[5] abilities ready this time.

As they got closer they noticed that the snow around the 'tear' had completely melted and there was a huge puddle under the 'tear', about the size of a huge pond. More shockingly, the water immediately below the 'tear' was starting to boil. Signalling her daughter to stay where she was for her safety. Tsurara continued towards the edge of the pond and after observing the 'tear' for a few seconds decided to use her abilities to cool the area down. It wasn't working, in fact the area seemed to get hotter. All of a sudden Tsurara could feel a large build-up of demonic energy. Her eyes widened 'What is this!' a scared expression overtaking her usual stoic one. Seeing that her daughter also lost her stoic expression for one of fear.

"Musume brace yourself!" shouted Tsurara in a panicked voice as her leg muscles worked overtime.

Building up as much youkai as she could she ran and the second she reached her daughter she pushed all of her built-up energy into raising an ice barrier separating them from the 'tear'. The ice making up the barrier was the densest Tsurara could make and the barrier itself was about 3 metres thick. Merely a second later a huge explosion of energy and fire came from the 'tear'. Tsurara had both her hands on the ice barrier and exerted the rest of her energy into maintaining the barrier against the onslaught of fiery energy. 'A bit more, a bit more!' repeated Tsurara in her mind. Her hands were shaking from the stress of the task and her breathing became laboured as beads of sweat came rolling down her face.

As soon as the explosion subsided Tsurara collapsed onto the now rocky ground as she struggled to regain her breath. 'That was…was to close.'

Mizore instantly broke out of her shocked state and rushed to her mother's side. Using her own control over ice she froze the immediate surrounding area around both of them to help her mother recover faster. 5 minutes later with her daughter's help Tsurara managed to stand on shaky legs. They slowly walked around the ice barrier which was only about 10cm thick now. The area in front of them was now a crater. However the rock that made up the mountain was rather hard, so while the area around them was free of snow and dry, the crater was rather small in size compared to if the explosion happened on normal soil. At the bottom of the crater which was only about a metre deep was a young boy.

'It's a…a boy and he's nu..nude!' thought Mizore as she for the first time saw a boy not from her village, and nude.

They carefully made their way down the crater and upon closer inspection could see that the boy had spiky blonde hair and was likely about the same age as Mizore. The boy looked perfectly fine, he had no visible wounds. However Tsurara and Mizore could both feel the residual energy around the boy and the higher than normal temperature from the boy.

'Did the boy cause that large explosion of energy? He feels human, so how?' Tsurara narrowed her eyes. 'No matter, we can't simply leave him here lest he die.'

"Mizore, we're bring the boy with us." Stated Tsurara. Complying Mizore formed a simple ice craft with her abilities and they hauled the boy onto the craft. Then the ice melted…from contact with the boy.

'What in the world just happened? No human should be able to melt our ice, from skin contact no less.' Tsurara felt her suspicions grow. 'Even if residual youkai tainted his body.'

"Mizore, use denser and more resistant ice." Instructed Tsurara.

Focusing her mind, with controlled breathing, Mizore repaired the human shaped hole in the craft with denser ice. Once more getting the boy onto the craft as both Tsurara and Mizore too got into the craft. The craft itself rather simple. The base was rectangle joined by a triangle in front forming a tip, flat and held up by a pair of ice skis on each side. The sides of the craft were curved and the back was slightly higher. The gunwale of the craft was rounded. Setting the boy against a side and her mother on an opposite side Mizore stood at the back. She bent her knees and spread her legs slightly. Clearing her mind, she pictured what she would do. With her cryokinesis she raised a thin layer of ice near the back of the skis' supporting the craft. With that gravity did the rest and the craft started to move forward. Repeating this with short flicks of her wrists the craft gained speed. The only doctor they knew was in their village. 5 minutes later they encountered problems.

"haha, blizzards don't usually form this quickly, so how come?" asked Mizore as she slowed the craft down and started to look around.

"The energy just now, the explosion might have caused it." Replied Tsurara, also answering her own question, who had recovered enough to stand comfortably on her own. "Find somewhere for us to take shelter Mususme. Even if we can stand the cold he might not be able to. Not to mention you'll have a hard time steering through the blizzard."

"Hai" replied Mizore who had just spotted a cave nearby, altering their course with subtle twists of her torso. They soon reached the cave just as the blizzard started to hit them. Mizore relaxed her breathing and loosened her posture as the craft came to a stop, resuming a more comfortable standing posture. The two yuki-onna went to the boy's sides and both lift an arm putting it around their shoulders. Slowly they walk into the cave. Once they're fully inside they place the boy against the wall of the cave and Tsurara formed an ice barrier to cover the entrance of the cave. Shielded from the elements they both sit down and rest. Every ten minutes Tsurara or Mizore would check on the boy who was on an ice table, more often Mizore, while Mizore would chill the cave as they found out some time ago that Naruto's body produced enough heat to make the icy walls slightly melt. It would not be good if the cave collapsed on them. Tsurara still had not recovered enough energy so she depended on her daughter. The sounds of the blizzard still echoed throughout the cave.

'Hundreds, thousands, millions of boy even, and the first one not from the village my musume meets is one that just 'popped' out of nowhere. Though even in the village she has no friends her age.' Thought Tsurara to herself with a bit of humour and sadness.

'I was lucky… Yatashi and I fell in love later in our marriage. So many of us forced into loveless marriages to ensure our survival. Tsurara's arms were relaxed and her shoulders hung loosely while her legs were together and bent at the knees. 'I remember our first date, we were so nervous then…hehe…' In a few more years Mizore will also be forced to marry unless she finds love before then. Maybe she'll bond to that boy. She does seem worried over the boy and she has checked on him tirelessly every ten minutes since I did the first few times… Now I just have to make sure that boy is worthy of my musume.' Finished Tsurara with a mental chuckle as a gentle smile appeared on her face replacing the slight frown she had. 'We used to watch the sunset quit often…holding hands…just enjoying each other's presence' Tsurara's relaxed gaze fell on her daughter and the boy. Her daughter was by his side looking over him with a slightly worried expression.

Mizore gently put her hand on the boy's head before withdrawing it after a short while.

'He feels very warm though…I'm not sure this is normal even if he is a human…' Her daughter gently adjusted the boy into a more comfortable position.

"Ahh!" quiet moans of agony came from the boy's lips. His face became scrounged up.

'Is he having bad dreams? Maybe if I' Mizore put her hand in a comforting manner on the boy's face. The boy's face leaned into her hand and almost like it never happened his face slowly relaxed. Mizore leaned in to study in his face better. Suddenly the boy's eyes opened slightly. "Tenshi[6]…" then his eyes closed once more.

'Now that I actually think about it, he's actually quite cute, especially those whisker marks.' Thought Mizore resisting the urge to stroke his 'whiskers'.

.

.

.

Two small red birds circled around what used to be a third of Konoha. They weren't ordinary birds, far from it. The crater was huge, it expanded at least 10 metres down. Surrounding the crater on one side was forest, on the other Konoha. Apparently the edge of the crater was a mere 5 metres from the Hokage tower. On the side of the village though it appeared that the village had erected a stone wall to form a temporary perimeter for what was left of the village. Done looking around they slowly neared the centre of the explosion. Where the residual energy that was strongest. Off course being slightly over 1.8 millennium years old had its advantages, such as a vast expanse of knowledge.

'This energy is similar yet different at the same time.'

'Looks like the huge release of energy also ripped a hole between two dimensions, I can feel the distorted nature energy.' as they spotted signs that a dimensional rift had appeared there. After memorising the residual energy of the dimensional rift they flew off. To a location that would be safer for what they were about to do.

Back at their home to prepare, in their humanoid forms, for their little trip. Going to the lowest level they entered an ordinary looking room. Although on closer inspection one would find invisible seals on the walls of the room. Reinforcing the room beyond what materials alone could do. Before they started though they went to another room, also similarly reinforced. Together they looked longingly. "We'll be back soon musume." Then they left the room which contained an egg, their daughter. It would be a few more years before she was reborn. With that they entered and sealed off the room that they were about to open a stable dimensional rift in. A massive energy surge flooded the room, but the seals did their job and contained the surge. Soon a stable rift was in front of them, framed by a wooden door. With that they entered the rift and the door closed behind them.

.

.

.

A wooden door appeared on snowy ground in the middle of a blizzard. As the door opened two humanoid beings stepped out. When the two were clear of the door it closed once more before disappearing.

"Even after so many years and despite our strength the cold still gets us unless we consciously control our body's temperature." Said the man, who was replied with a shiver from his female companion. 'If one of our own is here we'll have to find him or her fast. Without proper training and control this is a very bad environment for our kind.'

A quick moment later they proceeded with what they were doing, oblivious to the effects of the blizzard. Every bit of snow and ice that hit them just turned to steam the moment it did. The blizzard would have probably removed any physical tracks which they could follow. Luckily for them they were tracking a specific energy source.

"Got it, his energy signature is sticking out like a sore thumb. Looks like their two other weaker signature around him."

"Yeah, their energy feels cold too." Added her companion.

With that they bent their knees slightly and jumped into the high into air. Then they turned back into small birds and took off, except this time the birds were mostly white and camouflaged with the environment. They flew in the direction of their target at speeds that should not have been possible for normal birds. A bystander wouldn't even see anything unless the birds fly right in front of one's face. Halfway down the mountain they stopped, their target was under the snow. The birds dived, their beaks slightly glowing. When they impacted the snow the snow just simply melted away and they continued on with their dive underground.

That was until they hit a solid layer of ice. Apparently the ice was reinforced with demonic energy. This could turn out bad, for ice and water was still their natural weakness, although it would take someone who was very powerful due to the sheer power the two had. At this both their eyes narrowed.

"A thin layer of ice, everything below is tainted snow."

Sparing a glance at each other, they turned back into their humanoid forms and both placed both their hands on the ground. With controlled breathing they readied their arms. With a bit of focus and some demonic energy they started to melt through the ice and the tainted snow.

In the cave Mizore grew worried as she felt her reinforcements to the cave start to melt. "haha, something or someone is melting the snow and ice above us." This quickly drew Tsurara's attention. She quickly spread her senses into her daughter's ice and confirmed what her daughter felt.

'Youkai? Whoever or whatever they are their definitely associated with fire. Let's see how powerful they are.' Getting up she focused and with her own energy she reinforced the ice that still stood. When it became clear that the ice was still melting mother and daughter both got in front of where the thing or people melting the ice would be when the ice was finally broken through. Together they formed a thick transparent cylindrical wall of ice surrounding where the hole would form. Soon the water started to drip from the top of the cylinder as in a few seconds two figures dropped down from the ceiling. The two figures faced them and spread out their sensory abilities. Fortunately for the two the yuki-onna in front of them were not even remotely near the power they possessed. So they decided to simply walk through the ice towards them.

'This is not good, their very powerful that's for sure.' then Tsurara attempted to freeze them in the barrier but no matter how much energy she used the two would just keep walking, never speeding up nor slowing down. The two beings then simply stopped when they were clear of the ice.

'While we have the advantage here I don't think it's going to make much of a difference to these two.' Tsurara motioned her daughter behind her with a short wave of her hand. Tensing her muscles and spreading her legs a bit she released her youkai. Her hair slowly became frozen and her hands were replaced with ice claws. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her muscles tensed as she bent her back slightly. Positioning her hands in front of her she was as ready as she would ever be in such a situation.

"We're not here to fight you Yuki-onna." spoke the male in a voice that carried wisdom beyond what his physical age would imply. He had short red hair. He wore a simple grey-black shirt with white rims and silver strips running down the sides. The collar was yellow and there was a phoenix emblem on the front of his shirt. The ends of the sleeves were orange. He wore a black pair of pants that had red rings spaced out evenly on each side. His companion wore a dress that went down to her ankles. The dress had slits on both sides that ran up to mid-thigh to facilitate easier movement. The dress was a dull red and had phoenixes emblems sewn into it. The collar of the dress was silver. The ends of the dress and the ends of the sleeves were tipped black. Underneath she wore black biker shorts.

"I'm Kazeshi Uzumaki and beside me my wife, Miyuki Uzumaki. We're here for that boy behind you." Stated Kazeshi. Tsurara despite knowing that she would probably lose to people who could melt her ice so effortlessly still felt an urge to protect the boy, who knows what the two wanted with the boy. Her posture never changed.

'Besides he is the first boy from outside the village that Mizore has met, and it's so obvious Mizore is already starting to connect to the boy.' Thought Tsurara as she remembers her village's traditions. In her village where they had to wed early, true love was hard to find. She would protect both the boy and her daughter even if it meant protecting just one chance that her daughter would find love.

"Why do you want with the boy?" asked Tsurara in a stoic voice, but if one was experienced he or she would be able to hear underlying fear tinging her voice.

"What we want is to check something that is personal, besides what are you doing with the boy?" replied the man again. His companion had already started walking towards the boy.

Tsurara quickly revaluated the situation again. Kazeshi seemed rather relaxed with his hands by his sides and his slow breathing but she could see that he would be able to react in an instant if he had to. Glancing over to the other woman she could see that her steps were short and held purpose while her arms were held loosely by her sides. Such a posture would allow her to quickly change her body's direction and defend herself. Then she froze up while her eyes widened and conveyed fear and worry. She could feel beads of sweat forming on her face as she suppressed her first instinct to run over and protect.

Mizore was front of Miyuki with her hands tensed and spread out blocking her path. Mizore's eyes were squeezed shut and her whole body rigid.

"Mizore! What are you doing!" shouted Tsurara with more than a bit of worry and fear at her daughter's recklessness.

How the two women reacted definitely didn't go unnoticed to both of them.

'These two are certainly something, probably haven't even had him for more than a day and their already protecting him. Either that or our lost family members works fast even when asleep.' Thought Kazeshi as he suppressed a perverted chuckle.

"Relax, we're not going to harm him, besides we think we know what he is and how to help him." Spoke Kazeshi in a softer and warmer but as clear voice.

Upon reaching the smaller yuki-onna Miyuki had a warm smile. Lifting up the young girl's chin she subtly convinced Mizore to open her eyes.

"Clam down, I won't do anything bad okay?" whispered Miyuki softly.

"Okay…"Placing a comforting hand on the yuki-onna's shoulder she gently guided her into a more relaxed posture beside the boy. Seeing this Tsurara managed to calm her nerves enough for her to regain most control of her body. Lowering her arms and regaining a stoic expression she kept a slightly more relaxed posture. Miyuki put her free hand on the boy's forehead and while to bystanders looked like just that. She was sending very small packets of her youkai into the boy to check his health. After a few seconds she removed her hands and spoke.

'Just as we suspected, he is a phoenix though a rather young one. He even has an energy signature similar to ours. He's definitely part of our family.' Thought Miyuki. "He's fine. His body is just exhausted, he just needs to rest a bit more and he should be up by tomorrow." Her voice, rich and melodious, filled the cave. "Do you know where we could find a comfortable place for him to rest?"

"Our village is just …" Mizore shot her mother a curious and dirty look as Tsurara clamped her hand over Mizore's mouth. Kazeshi seemed to realise her intentions well enough.

"It is fine, you don't want to tell the location of your people to outsiders much less strangers you just met. We understand." Kazeshi then walked over to a wall and tapped the wall once with the tip of his fingers while focusing some energy. Just like how it had disappeared the wooden door that brought them here appeared in the wall. Miyuki gently lifted the boy up and carried him towards the door. Tsurara was a bit confused at the man's action, until he opened the door. What was behind the door was similar to the 'tear' she and her daughter saw earlier today except it seemed more stable.

'For him to so casually create something like that…what kind of power do these two have?' thought Tsurara with some shock whole maintaining stoic.

Mizore however was a bit more oblivious as her eyes were stuck to the boy the whole time, she had to consciously stop her body from following. Once again this didn't go unnoticed by Kazeshi who could clearly see the stress in the younger girl's body.

"You're welcome to come with us if you want." Kazeshi said to the two yuki-onna. 'For taking care of our family member even in unknowingly. Besides it's not like they can really do anything bad without us noticing.' Although the question was directed more towards Tsurara could see that Mizore really wanted to go with the boy. Another second of her daughter's pleading gaze she conceded.

'Well if they wanted us dead they could have killed as anytime. Might as well.' Thought Tsurara as she nudged her daughter along. Daughter and mother made their way to the door and without so much as hesitation, their faces stoic the whole time, they stepped into the rift. Kazeshi soon followed, but not before marking the location for future reference, and the door once again disappeared as soon as it closed.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

A/N) It was painful…labelling the stuff and matching the colours…

[1]: Byzantium: This is a shade of violet.

[2]: 'obiage'. It's a bustle sash above the obi holding the kimono together.

[3]: 'obi'. It's the main sash holding the kimono together. That big one.

[4]: 'obi-jime'. It's a small string knotted at the front that holds the 'obi' together.

[5]: cryokinesis means control over ice.

[6]: 'tenshi' means angel in Japanese.


	3. Chapter 3 Understanding

A/N)

Constructive criticism would be appreciated.

Compliments would be accepted.

Flames shall be used for my BBQ.

Disclaimer: I hereby claim that I the author of the fanfic below do not in any shape or form own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, Rosario + Vampire and Rosario + Vampire capu2. However the ideas and storyline are mine.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

**Chapter 3: Understanding**

"You can talk with someone for years, every day, and still, it won't mean as much as what you can have when you sit in front of someone, not saying a word, yet you feel that person with your heart, you feel like you have known the person for forever... connections are made with the heart, not the tongue."  
― C. JoyBell C.

.

.

.

The third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, cursed as the situation became clearer and clearer. Immediately after the disaster problem after problem just kept rolling in. When the explosion was finally over he had dispatched almost all of his ANBU to secure the affected area. Then he had to dispatch jounin and chunin to control the civilian population which was faced which much backlash from the civilian council. The genin were to act as scouts around the village. Unfortunately for him most of Konoha's economical sector was caught in the explosion. Which meant that not only did he have to borrow funds from the daimyo the village' military would also be badly funded. Then he would also have to send his ninja on non-stop missions to ward off aggressive nations. It was pretty much impossible to find out what caused the disaster either as everything near it was literally vaporised. Then comes the matter of the village's weapon. Naruto Uzumaki's apartment was also caught in the blast and the boy could only be assumed to be dead. His tracking seals weren't responding.

'What did I do the deserve this?' thought Sarutobi as he released a sigh.

Then the door opened and in came one of his biggest headaches.

"Hiruzen, what has happened?" Said an old man with only one visible eye and an arm in a cast who had to use a walking stick with his free hand, Danzo Shimura. Behind him two elders, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado.

Taking his pipe out of his mouth Hiruzen let out a sigh. "An explosion has wiped out a third of Konoha, the economy sector of the Village is the worst off."

"How could such a thing have happened?" asked Koharu with distaste as a frown could be seen on her face.

"Unfortunately there is still no clear lead on what caused it. The blast incinerated everything and anyone it touched. It is impossible to gather evidence." Hiruzen as he stood up and looked out the window at the crater. A bit further and even he would have been a victim that day.

"Then what of the ANBU patrols?" asked Homura as he levelled a serious gaze on Hiruzen. After all if the patrols were lacking, then village security was at risk.

"Despite all their training, Ninja still have emotions. That day they were celebrating the demon bird's defeat and unfortunately grieving over their losses." To anyone else this might have been a simple and straightforward excuse, but to the three other elders in the room the hidden meaning was clear. 'They were all part of the mob attacking Naruto Uzumaki.'

"That's why you should have never disbanded my Root foundation." Replied the assumed ex-leader of Root, Danzo.

"I will not have my ninja without emotion. Those that lack emotion lack the will of fire. I will not throw away my predecessors teachings and beliefs." Hiruzen looked at the photos of the past two hokage's of the leaf, wishing that they were still alive to deal with this.

"If your nin…"

"We are not going to discuss something that I decided years ago Danzo." Hiruzen cut in. "What are you really here for?" Hiruzen's voice was laced with suspicion as he could already feel a headache forming.

"Fine, what of our village weapon? "Asked Danzo.

'Sigh…Same old Danzo…He has been after Naruto ever since the boy was born. Too bad for him I made my plans much earlier.' Thought Sarutobi with an internal smirk. That however died quickly when he remembered that Naruto was likely also caught in the blast and gone, along with his plans.

"The boy's apartment was caught in the blast and he has yet to be found." A grim line set on Hiruzen's face as he turned around to look Danzo in the eye. It didn't even faze the man.

"So the village's weapon is missing or dead. This would have never had happened if you just gave me custody of the boy in the first place." Danzo lightly tapped his walking cane on the ground with his one good arm.

"This information has to be supressed, if the other villagers catch wind of this…" added Homura

"It would be a disaster. We are the only 'great' village without a demon weapon. We would lose a major deterrent. Every other 'great' village has at least 2 jinchuriki[1] yet we the strongest do not even have one. We lost the kyubi when it broke out of its seal a few years ago in the third shinobi war. We almost lost the war if not for the yondaime[2] Hokage." Continued Koharu.

"It was hard enough staying the strongest village without a jinchuriki then came the demon bird and you had a lucky break." Resumed Homura.

"Do not assume that I do not know that. The _village _had a lucky break when the demon bird attacked and we managed to seal it into one of ours." Corrected Hiruzen as he narrowed his eyes. Though the unchanging faces on the elders' faces proved that they did not care.

"Yet you lose our only real deterrent against the other 'great' villages. Your old age has gotten to you Hiruzen. Pick another successor and be done with it." Danzo added.

"At this point picking a new Hokage will not get us a new jinchuriki." Hiruzen evaded the question, another one of many, then he spared a quick glance to the clock. "Now if you excuse I have to go to a meeting. Please leave." With that Hiruzen simply walked past his advisors with heavy steps.

"I believe we have to take things into our own hands seeing that our Hokage obviously cannot solve this in an effective way." Danzo mentioned.

"I agree."

"So do I."

"When the leaves of a tree are rotten and useless, one has to remove them. For as long as there exists the roots, the tree will recover." Danzo stated with finality.

With that the Hokage's advisors fully turned their backs to their Hokage.

.

.

.

At the lowest level of the phoenix's mansion 5 people came out through a wooden door. Lines and Kanji making up seals on the walls of the room could be seen glowing faintly. The second the door was closed the seals stop glowing.

"Well then, I'll take the boy to a spare room." Miyuki mentioned just before she went out the door.

"Well then I guess I'll have to give you 2 the grand tour." Kazeshi said playfully to the two yuki-onna, although one could feel an exhausted undertone. Bringing up his hand he some of his hair back. "We're currently in one of our reinforced rooms at the bottom level of our Mansion." Then he paused a moment as he took in a deep breath and sighed. He's face seemed slightly tense and his forehead was creased.

'Man, compared to how we've been for years, this little days' worth of adventure was tiring.' Thought Kazeshi as he took in a refreshing breath and prepared to continue.

Tsurara interrupted him. "You seem tired, why don't you take a rest and we explore on our own?" Tsurara offered nicely with a small smile on her face.

Kazeshi seemed to mull this over a bit as he raised his hand to his chin. Taking in the pros and cons. 'On one hand I would be letting two people I've just met free reign within our home. On the other I'll be asleep although the seals within our home will notify us if anything major happens.'

"Okay, but there are some things you two should know. 1, Don't enter any other rooms on this level. 2, Don't try to use the rift we just used to get here without telling either me or Miyuki first. 3, If you require privacy or wish to stay here for the night the two of you may use one of the guest rooms. The doors to the guest rooms are all single doors, grey and framed by a darker shade of grey." Said Kazeshi as he ticked off items one by one with his fingers.

"Thank you for your hospitality Kazeshi-san." Tsurara said as she and Mizore gave a small bow.

"You're welcome, but please just call me Kazeshi, I'm not one for formalities." With s simply bow of his head Kazeshi left the room and the two yuki-onna alone.

.

.

.

'Who are you young hatchling? Your energy signature is so familiar with ours and similar to Kushina's yet slightly different. More intriguing is that there seems to be some human in you too.' Thought Miyuki as she looked at the boy she had just put to bed with longing eyes. There was something about him that struck a familiar chord within her, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't grasp it firmly in her mind.

.

.

.

Miyuki exited the room and like her husband decided to get some rest. The corridor she was walking in had many doors on both sides, all guest rooms. Nearing the end of the corridor which led to the main room she spotted the two house guests.

"Hi." Said Miyuki as she stopped in front of the two, oddly enough they were both facing a guest room door. The door's handle was frozen over. A small amused smile found its way onto her face. "Having troubles with the door?"

"Yes, Kazeshi-san said we could use one of the guest rooms but the door won't open no matter what we do." Replied Mizore as she and her mother slightly turned to face Miyuki. While Tsurara's face had a smile Mizore looked a bit irritated. Mizore's long hair overshadowed her eyes as her eyes returned to stare at the door.

"That lazy husband of mine probably neglected to tell you that in order to use a room you have to both place your palms on that brown box next to it for a few seconds." Miyuki let out a small laugh as Mizore shot a death glare at the door. "What does it do?" asked Tsurara as both of them placed their palms on the box. "It locks in your energy signature and your palm print, so only the two of you can open the door. Although me and my husband can still override that."

'Then comes the amazement, shock and surprise.' Miyuki predicted their responses.

"Thank you Miyuki-san." With that simple statement both guests entered the room. Miyuki stood there as her wrist slightly twitched… in annoyance…

'Either it's because their yuki-onna or I'm losing my touch. Heh, at least the younger one showed a hint of amazement in her eyes.' Thought Miyuki as she considered 'asking' her husband if her skills had deteriorated that much. He might have been taking advantage of her the deterioration of her skills…

.

.

.

'For a guest room, this is very furnished.' Thought Tsurara as she looked around in the supposed-guest room. There was a television screen at one end of the room, a rather large comfortable looking bed and a small table that had two chairs with it. The wallpaper was plain white though. What really caught their attention though was the window, more specifically the view they had.

'There's only some land and forest, maybe about a kilometre or two or three then nothing not even a slope down that would hint at them being on a mountain or even a plateau…just sky…' thought Tsurara.

'Where exactly are we? We couldn't possibly be floating in the air, something this big can't be floating in the air!' Both of their jaw dropped and their eyes widened. Although defying all the laws of physics their suckers still stayed in their mouth despite gravity and their gaping mouths.

Tsurara collected herself after a short moment, sparing a look at her daughter she couldn't help but twitch her eyebrow in slightly jealousy. Her daughter had managed recover from their shock faster than her. Now Mizore was looking at a small panel on one of the room's panels. It looked suspiciously like control panels Tsurara had seen in the human world in her dimension. There were small brown boxes the size of a finger's breadth. Above them were labels.

'Hmm…let's see, 'Lock room', 'Lights', 'Window curtains', 'temperature', 'Clock', wait…temperature?' Walking over Tsurara pressed her index finger onto a box below the temperature label that had a down arrow next to it. Soon enough the room was cold enough to snow… In fact, some of the water moisture in the air started to freeze.

Mizore could only stare at her mother's hidden glee in making the room feel like home.

.

.

.

It was midnight when a certain blonde started to stir. Opening his crystal blue eyes he was met with an unfamiliar ceiling.

'I'm on a bed, which is softer and doesn't have springs poking at me. The ceiling looks different and the smell of the air is …clean…. Am I in the hospital after the beating in the forest? No, the smell of disinfectant isn't here and neither is the ceiling white. Where am I?!' Naruto ended with a slightly panicked thought up Naruto looked around.

'Well, this is a very furnished room, if some villager wanted to kill me why would he or she put me in such a nice room?' Naruto thought with slight confusion. 'Maybe I should look around…'

Setting his legs lightly on the ground, wary of pain, he got up and took stock of his surroundings. Then he felt air brush his nude body.

'…WHERE ARE MY CLOTHES!?' Naruto was just about to go over the whole room for something to help maintain his dignity. Only to feel like an idiot when he saw a set of neatly folded clothes on a table beside where he had slept.

'Best set of clothes I've ever worn in my life. It's not horribly orange too.' Content with his clothing, which consisted of a black shirt with a red swirl on the back and a pair of grey tapered pants.

Creeping slowly toward the door he quietly opened it. To reveal a rather dark corridor, lit only be the moonlight coming in through the window at the end of the corridor.

As Naruto walked down the corridor he never noticed a certain purple haired girl looking at him in slight curiosity.

After much confusion Naruto finally managed to locate the exit. When he placed his hand on the latch he felt a small stinging sensation only for it to go away when the door opened. He didn't seem to notice it though. The outside looked pretty normal, there was a single gravel pathway at the side of the mansion that winded thorough through a wall of trees. There was a rather large expanse of land around him, surrounded by a thick wall of trees. Looking up at the lunar moon Naruto couldn't help but note that the clouds seemed a bit lower than usual.

He never noticed a certain yuki-onna leaving the door too.

Deciding to try and figure out where he is Naruto walked into the forest. There was something off about the area, he just couldn't put his finger on it.

'Crunch', Naruto immediately turned around and surveyed his surroundings. While normal people would have dismissed this as a trick of the forest, Naruto wasn't that normal. He had dismissed such things when he was younger, only to regret them when someone jumped out at him after.

"Come out I know you're there." Naruto shouted into the woods. Suddenly he felt a presence behind him. Quickly jumping around, he took in his stalker. She was about the same height as him, had long purple hair and pupil-less eyes.

"Who are you? Why are you following me?" Naruto asked suspiciously as he shifted one leg behind him and his hands moved slightly higher. 'She looks strangely familiar.'

Playing with her fingers a bit Mizore looked down at the ground. "I'm Mizore Shirayuki. I was following you because I was curious."

Naruto wasn't really paying attention to her though. 'With the moon behind her and her white kimono, she looks like an angel… wait. Angel?' "tenshi…" Naruto mumbled. Mizore caught it though, after all how could she spy on potential lovers if she couldn't. Her cheeks glowed slightly pink at that as she look up the boy.

"Did you save me?" Naruto asked as he slightly relaxed his arms and looked straight into her blue orbs.

"Well…not exactly, but my mother and I had found you unconscious and took you with us.

"Arigato." Mizore offered a small smile at the boy, though something about him struck a chord within her.

"Would like to be my friend?" Naruto looked down, eyes unsure.

"I would like that Naruto-san." Mizore nodded slightly before she gently moved some of her back into place with her hand.

Mizore was unprepared though when she felt two arms around her and heard 'Thank You.' over and over. Hesitating a second, Mizore returned the hug. 'He feels warm…warm…' When Naruto finally disengaged the hug, Mizore looked tired and weak. Her eyes were slightly closed.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked in concern for his new friend.

"I just can't stand the heat that's all." Naruto looked at her in disbelief. It was rather cold at night. 'She's joking right? She doesn't look she's joking though… she did feel very cold…' Naruto decided to simply play along, he didn't want to lose his first real friend.

"Do you want to take a walk Naruto?" Nodding his answer to Mizore's attempt to change the subject, albeit hesitantly, the two new friends walked in sync around the forest. Throughout the walk despite the many nagging questions Naruto had both he and Mizore felt rather contented. For once in his life Naruto felt rather happy, he finally made a friend. Both children had small smiles showing, unknown to them both.

About ten minutes later when they finally cleared the clearing, a rather large shock had immediately brought back all the questions Naruto had for the girl. For in front of them, the ground literally ended a few metres later, there was only air and nothing else.

"So I just came out of nowhere, then you and your mom rescued me then two really powerful strangers claiming they know what I am took us all here?" Mizore just gave a simple stiff nod as Naruto summed up what she had told him over the course of a very long time. Her shoulders were tense and locked. Explaining a few things to Naruto would do that to a person, especially when she had to repeat some things up to a dozen times.

Naruto looked at her in disbelief for a few moments but something about her ran true deep within him so he decided to trust her.

"So Mizore, how was your life like?" Naruto looked the moon.

Mizore twirled the sucker in her mouth as she dropped her shoulders. "Hmm, well I grew up in a village secret to humans. There were many others around my age, but I never really made any friends."

"Why's that?"

"We yuki-onna are fertile for a relatively short amount of time. From our mid-teens to our mid-20s. So to make sure our race survives we are all wed at 17 years of age, even if it's an arranged marriage."

"That's…" Naruto was cut off.

"Don't…" Mizore's eyes wavered slightly. "Due to this many of us want to find our loves before then. So that means we have to fight over boys, because we'd rather marry someone we know than a total stranger. Even worse is that yuki-otoko are very rare so sometimes we have to romance humans."

Mizore could feel sadness creeping up her as she revisited her younger days. "I was different from the other girls. I wasn't very aggressive. So the others always looked down on me." Mizore looked down a bit at this…

She found two fingers lifting her chin up to meet Naruto's eyes. She gasped. 'His eyes are the same as mine. Loneliness, hurt and pain most people never understand. Yet his eyes seem so deep, I feel like I could get lost in them.'

"I know, but we won't be alone anymore. We're friends right?"

Such a simple act, which had the yuki-onna nod, yet it brought tears to both as they hugged.

"Back in my village, I was always shunned and alone. The adults would always pick on me."

Naruto took comfort in her embrace as he revisited old but fresh wounds.

"Then they would reward their children for beating me."

Their hug only tightened as they knew they had finally found a friend, a friend who understood.

"The worst part was that I never even knew why."

Mizore only felt her bond to the blonde strengthen.

Unknown to the other, they had both simultaneously taken the same promise in their minds. 'I promise you Naruto/Mizore I will never leave you.'

Mizore though found herself ending the hug soon as her body's messages finally go through to her mind. Gently pushing Naruto away to the blonde's confusion she felt torn. She really like the blonde's embrace and presence, but he was much too warm.

That little incident did little to hamper the atmosphere between the two.

'Even though it has only been a few short hours since she became my friend,'

'I already feel like I've known him my whole life.'

When they locked gazes once more they could feel a deep sense of connection. For tonight their masks, acts and defences weren't there.

'Is this how having a real friend feels like?' both kindred spirits thought.

They spent the rest of the night simply looking at the sky, never noticing when they fell asleep beside each other.

.

.

.

"Beep"

'Argh, stupid clock.'

"Beep"

'The sun's not even up yet!'

"Beep"

'Why did we even set the stupid clock?'

"Beep"

"Okay I'm up!" sitting up Kazeshi attempted to locate the clock. 'When I get my hands on that clock it's going to pa…wait…clock? I didn't set any alarm clocks?!' Fully alert now Kazeshi jumped to attention. An alarm had been triggered, not the 'wake UP!' kind of alarm but rather the kind of 'there's a problem' alarm. In front of their bed the wall of their room was riddled with invisible seals. What was visible though was a map of the whole floating structure. One part of the map was glowing slightly green, the main door of the mansion. Apparently it had been left open for too long.

'Weird, Miyuki and I haven't opened that door since we found that boy. Only Miyuki, I and our daughter could have opened that door. The others keyed into the door had all went missing…' Quickly Kazeshi walked over to a small circle at the bottom right of the map. Focusing a bit of his energy into it a scroll appeared in his hands.

With shaky hands he unrolled the scroll.

"Record of Access."

"Main mansion Doors"

"Recent 24 hours."

"Kushina Uzumaki : 6 hours ago"

Tears started to build up at the corner of his eyes as he ran over to his wife's sleeping body and proceeded to shake her body. Sleepy eyes woke opened a few seconds later.

"What? What?" Miyuki stretched with her left arm raised high, she stopped the second she saw her husband's face.

"What's wrong Kazeshi-koi?"

He didn't say anything, instead he nudged the scroll towards Miyuki. The second she saw what he was pointing at all remnants of sleep disappeared out of her as she shakily got up.

"She's here…She's back…." Spreading out her senses in an attempt to locate their lost daughter she was shocked when she couldn't feel her.

"Kaze..Kazeshi-koi. Can you locate her? I can't."

Her husband gave a nod before he closed his eyes. Seconds later a frown appeared on his face and his eyebrows bunched together.

"I can't locate her either, but our seals don't lie…" Kazeshi did a single hand-sign and suddenly all the seals in the room that were invisible before showed up.

Both people in the room quickly looked at a specific part.

"Nothing is wrong with the seal." Said both of them.

"Maybe, maybe something's wrong with her, something that has made it impossible for us to sense her." Reasoned Miyuki, though she didn't quite looked convinced herself.

None the less both of them soon took off in search of their daughter.

"Her room is empty."

"The main door is open."

"Maybe she's outside."

Both beings took off to the outside to locate their lost daughter. In their search, they never noticed that there were two people missing from the mansion. Neither did they ever notice that there was a residual energy that was oddly familiar.

Two bright streaks could be seen bending in the air and moving all over the place. Miyuki and Kazeshi had decided to search for Kushina in one of their weaker transformed forms that emitted light and flew slower. So that maybe Kushina would be able to see them.

.

.

.

The rays of the sun started to peek above the horizon. As the sunlight hit the sleeping pair one started to feel refreshed, one started to feel discomfort. Minutes later the pair woke up, one sweaty and weak, the other strong and bright. Naruto hopped onto his legs as he faced the sunset, unobscured by anything. He stretched his hands wide as he worked out his stiff joins.

A soft moan caught his attention. Turning around he saw Mizore sweating profusely with laboured breathing.

'Her kimono is stuck to her body… NO BAD thoughts.' Clearing his head he refocused on Mizore.

"Are you okay?" No answer, Mizore slightly open eyes looked weakly at him.

Mizore though was slightly more concerned over the heat.

'It's no good, I can't form any ice or snow, it's just like haha said, my body is too warm and the lollipop melted last night while I slept. I didn't bring any with me. I don't have enough training to cool my body down with my youkai either.' Only Tsurara had brought any lollipops with her, they had not planned on being whisked away to some floating island in the middle of nowhere.

Two pairs of too warm hands around her quickly brought her out of her thoughts. "Let…let go, to..too hot" the half-there girl whispered. "haha…my room". Naruto withdrew his hands like they had been burnt, despite that Mizore fell unconscious. Frantic to save his friend Naruto dashed back to the mansion to find her mother.

"Come on legs! Faster!" Naruto mumbled to himself as he ran even faster than when he was chased by mobs back in the village. He could feel tears building up at the corner of his eyes but he refused to let them fall. 'I won't, I can't lose my first real friend!'

Somewhere else on the far side of the floating land two people sensed a rather familiar but slightly different burst of energy, energy that only phoenixes could have.

'It's him, and his energy is familiar to Kushina's but something is not right.' Both narrowed their eyes as they changed course and went for the new target.

Naruto threw the doors open and walked in to see a rather frantic silver-purple haired woman running around the place. The doors bounced back and closed behind him.

'She looks like Mizore, and she also has a sucker in her mouth like Mizore did… maybe she's her mom' As Naruto opened his mouth to signal her many other things happened. His legs froze in place and a rather sharp ice spike approached his neck. Then the doors behind him burst open and since he was standing much too near the door, Naruto found himself suddenly flying toward the white-purple haired woman. Then his hand ended up at some rather inappropriate places. Moments later he and the woman both found themselves being held up by…nothing?

"What is going on here?" a rather irritated voice rang out. Both suspended people looked to see a rather annoyed Kazeshi. Neither answered, dazed by what had happened. Naruto had recovered faster though and while he immediately prepared to fight for his life he suddenly remembered Mizore.

Kazeshi focused his attention on the blonde when said blonde's face expressed fear, but not for himself.

"Help, my friend, Mizore, she needs help! She's too hot." At this Kazeshi and Miyuki twitched an eyebrow at the potential double meaning in his statement with blank faces. Naruto was none the wiser, having not gone through puberty and as such not yet gotten the 'talk'. Tsurara was the only one that reacted rather 'appropriately'.

Tsurara's eyes had widened, and she transformed as she remembered the dangers of a yuki-onna overheating. Her sudden surge of youkai broke the hold Kazeshi had on both her and Naruto. In an instant both Miyuki and Kazeshi were frozen in a block of ice being caught off guard by her. It wouldn't take them very long to get out though. In their current states a few minutes at worst.

"Where is she?" Tsurara currently had a very sharp blade at Naruto's neck as she asked in a very serious tone.

Internally Naruto was freaking out, 'MIZORE's MOM ISN'T HUMAN! Wait… Does that mean that Mizore isn't human either…?' The lengthening of a very sharp blade quickly broke him out of his musings.

"Erm…..errr, she's at…" Naruto sputtered, more than a bit afraid, but then met a problem. How was he going to describe a specific part of a forest and give directions to it with his limited vocabulary… Having been thought how to read and write much later due to some problems during his childhood. "I can lead you?" he asked rather meekly with a very pale face.

Tsurara's eyes glowed even brighter as her bangs overshadowed her eyes. "Run."

Like a gun had been fired at a race Naruto dashed as fast as his small legs would carry him, even with chakra and some of his other power helping him. Sparing a quick glance behind only made it much worse. Tsurara was right behind him, in her fully transformed state leaving an ice trail behind her. The fact she had a very shard blade of ice pointed at Naruto's back only made him run faster.

Naruto by all rights would have felt very proud of himself, after all he just set a new personal speed record. However the threat of an angry mother worried for her child and the fear of losing his first friend took precedence. Naruto stood a few feet from Tsurara rather confused. When Tsurara entered the small clearing Mizore and Naruto spent the night in she had almost frozen from shock and worry at her daughter's state. Her daughter was very pale, more so than usual. She had very laboured breathing and every breathe she took looked like a chore. Her face was scrounged together and discomfort and pain pretty much screamed from her very being. More worryingly Mizore's legs appeared to be melting. Tsurara had quickly froze Mizore in a rather large hollow ice box.

"Will, will she be alright?" Tsurara felt a bit of happiness in her as she felt the emotion in that simple question. Nodding her head she could pretty much feel the boy's relief.

After freezing the path they had taken Tsurara with started to move the block of ice with her standing on top of it. Naruto followed the same path she took, occasionally yelling curses as he tripped. Tsurara merely let go a small laugh under hear breath.

By the time Tsurara had gotten back to the mansion the two 'birdcicles' had melted and were standing at the entrance with rather annoyed faces. When they saw Tsurara with her daughter though, their faces softened. They stepped to the side and simply let her through.

'That doesn't mean we're not going to have a little chat about freezing hosts' Kazeshi thought. Then he spotted a mop of blonde hair sliding slowly towards them on Tsurara's ice trail.

Kazeshi's mood brightened up slightly when he saw the boy get back up just to fall back onto the ice. Even Miyuki giggled as the boy tried to get back up again only to lose to gravity once more. Pitying the boy Miyuki walked onto the ice to help the blonde. She only giggled more when she the blonde shot her a dirty look for being able to stand on the ice without falling.

Kazeshi though had another thought appear in his mind as he remembered certain things the blonde did. "Miyuki, bring the boy here I want to test something." Miyuki looked at him with a curious expression. Miyuki once he just responded with a small smile and a reassuring gaze that seemed to say 'trust me on this'. Naruto missed it. He had a very different reaction. His past was not a very kind one. Naruto took a step back as he looked from Kazeshi to Miyuki. Miyuki though merely put a hand on his shoulder and crouched down to his level.

"Don't worry, my name is Miyuki, we won't hurt you. Okay?" her very voice seemed to calm Naruto's nerves. Others had tried similar things in the past only to hurt him later. Though this felt different. 'I feel…I feel like I can trust her, her voice, she's not lying. I know it.' Nodding he clasped Miyuki's hand and followed her.

Kazeshi than fully shut the main doors. "I want you to open the door." The blonde simply looked at him weirdly as an anime-style sweat-drop formed on the back of his head. A reassuring squeeze from Miyuki quickly brought him to do as he was told. Once again a small stinging sensation was felt as he grabbed the latch but other than that he opened the doors without much trouble. The small wince the blonde made due to the stinging sensation wasn't missed by Kazeshi.

While Miyuki was shocked that the boy could open the doors several ideas and theories ran through Kazeshi's head before he eventually landed on one.

"I think I know what's happening, follow me." Releasing a rather tired sigh that was tinged with disappointment. Kazeshi dropped his shoulders and just turned his back while he walked towards his room with dragging legs that seemed to be made of stone.

Miyuki had a slight idea on what happened, putting on a shaky smile nudged Naruto along.

Back in the Kazeshi and Miyuki's room Kazeshi held a familiar scroll in his hands.

"Record of Access."

"Main mansion Doors"

"Recent 24 hours."

"Kushina Uzumaki : 3 minutes ago"

"Kushina Uzumaki : 8 hours ago"

Miyuki gasped when she saw the scroll, before realisation struck her and her beautiful orbs conveyed sadness.

Kazeshi had to make sure though. Without Naruto noticing Kazeshi had gotten a strand of hair from Naruto and some of his energy in a seal.

Naruto though was slightly more confused and worried as he couldn't figure out what was causing the adults to act the way they were.

"Ano, is something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong Naruto, we just have to check some things. Why don't you check on your friend?" Miyuki reminded him.

"That's right, bye!" a rather cheerful smile appeared instantly. Though something was slightly off about it. No one noticed it.

Naruto didn't' see the anguish, despair, pain and oddly enough hope flash trough the faces of Miyuki and Kazeshi.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

[1]: jinchuriki: human sacrifice (term for people used to hold demons}

[2]: yondaime Hokage : fourth fire-shadow


	4. Chapter 4 True Bonds

A/N)

Note: Sometimes I'll end up doing a flash back without saying it in the blunt and crass form of ' -+-+-+- Flashback -+-+-+- '. I'm trying to subtly weave my flashbacks into my wirting.

Disclaimer: I hereby claim that I the author of the fanfic below do not in any shape or form own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, Rosario + Vampire and Rosario + Vampire capu2. However the ideas and storyline are mine.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

**Chapter 4: True Bonds**

"A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you."  
― Elbert Hubbard

.

.

.

"Baka baka baka." Repeated Naruto as he scolded himself in a familiar corridor. He was feeling rather dumb as he wandered around aimlessly, he didn't know where Mizore's room was.

As he passed by a door that was the same as every other one a cold chill ran down his spine. 'Cold - Is it coming from that room? Mizore did say she liked the cold.'

Naruto, being Naruto decided to walk straight through the door.

"Ow…" Naruto rubbed his head as he sat on the ground nursing the sore spot on his head. As he was getting back up he felt like the heat had somehow been drained from the surrounding area.

Gulping, he was unsure if he even wanted to look up. Eventually though the tension got to him and his eyes went up.

'IT'S MIZORE's CRAZY MOTHER!' that single thought caught him off guard despite him more or less already knowing who would be there.

"May I help you?" The way she said that didn't help matters either as his heart sped up to dangerous speeds. Her unflinching and emotionless face made things worse seemed to dig into him.

Gripping his pants as his hands fidgeted. Wetting his suddenly dry mouth with his tongue he replied.

"Is…is Mizore alright?" He didn't know why he asked that. Hadn't Tsurara already assure him earlier on? Maybe he just had to be sure.

Tsurara hitched a single eyebrow, but disbelief was running rampant in her mind. 'Ridiculous. Years at home and she doesn't make any friends. Just a few days here and she already makes a friend.'

"It's not polite to simply ask someone for something without first introducing yourself." She lifted and moved her foot in front of her, a single solid smack echoed as it landed.

"I…err…I'm Na..Naruto Uzumaki. I want to see Mizore." Naruto pushed a foot behind him. He couldn't take it. Her eyes were, the way her haze bore into him scared the boy.

"I see. I'm Tsurara Shirayuki, Mizore's mother. However what is my daughter's condition of any business of yours?" Tsurara's neutral tone had been replaced with one of warning and hidden danger. She took another step forward.

"Err…er" Naruto took another step backwards. His hands were shaking by his sides and pulling on his shirt. He felt like he had been driven into corner, there was no way out.

"Well?" Tsurara's tone carried a very clear message, one that even Naruto couldn't fail to pick up. 'If I don't like your answer, you're dead.' Naruto's face drained of blood as he screamed in his mind.

Tsurara took another step forward. Her hair had frozen over and ice claws had taken the place of her hands. This time though, Naruto didn't take a step back. Tsurara looked straight into Naruto's eyes, or she would have had Naruto's head not been bowed and his eyes shadowed by his blonde locks. He was getting too deeply in his mind to notice her anymore.

'Mizore… why do I care? What is this …unbearable feeling…?' Emotions that had never before flooded Naruto bubbled up. He's hand's formed tight fists as he dug deeper within himself.

'She, she's my friend. Mizore is my _first true_ friend!'

Tsurara watched as the previously timid and scared boy straightened. His hands by his sides steady and strong.

"Mizore, Mizore is my friend! So that's why, what happens to her is my business!" His voice was laced with determination. Confidence and determination re-coloured his face. Then she was met by the boy's unwavering gaze.

The warm smile that had formed on Tusrara's face caused Naruto to stumble in his thoughts for a moment.

"Well then Naruto, since you said so, come in." His mouth opened in disbelief. Yet he watched as Tsurara's digging gaze let up and she motioned for him to enter.

The first thing Naruto noticed when he stepped into the room was simply ludicrous.

'Is that…real snow?' thought Naruto in disbelief as he stood rooted to the spot. There was some white powder at the corners of the room and some of it sparsely littered around the room. A few moments later his mind finally caught up with his body.

A shiver wrecked his body as Naruto looked on in shock as every breath he took produced a fine mist. It wasn't unbearable by any means though. In fact unknown to him his body unconsciously adjusted its temperature to match that of the room. Soon the cold to Naruto was just that, a simple chill. Tsurara noticed how his body seemed to give off more heat all of a sudden, but compared to the air-conditioning the room had it didn't make much of a difference.

"Mizore…" Naruto mumbled as he plopped himself down on a chair beside Mizore's bed.

'She looks so peaceful…' his hand reached out to touch her almost subconsciously, but remembering how the past two times went he snatched his hand back. Tsurara didn't miss this.

"What happened?" Naruto asked as he looked at Mizore. His back slumped forward. He looked at Mizore, he felt funny. He couldn't describe it properly. He had closed himself off behind a fake persona for most of his life. The mere thought that someone could worm their way through his barriers in under a night was incomprehensible to him. Yet here he was.

"She forgot to bring a sucker with her and overheated." Seeing Naruto's confused look she continued. "We are yuki-onna. We have to keep our body temperatures cool. That's why we eat these lollipops" Tsurara pointed at the sucker in her mouth "they help to keep our body temperature cool."

The blonde nodded his understanding, amazingly getting on the first attempt, since it concerned his first friend. For a few moments he just looked at her. Was it pain that was slowly building up in him? Why?

Then what an idea struck him. It would have been crazy to anyone else, stupid even, but he was never one to care what other's thought.

"Tsurara-san, when I touched Mizore before she said that I was too warm." He was stated rather clearly.

Tsurara nodded once, though she had to suppress a twitch at the potential double meaning of his choice of words.

"So I was wondering, what if I could lower my own temperature?" it seemed more like a question that he had to let out.

Yet when Tsurara saw what Naruto had his eyes on she herself had to rethink her thoughts. 'He couldn't be, he might even die.' Yet it seemed her skills at reading people had, sadly in this case, had not dropped.

"Could I have one of those suckers?" She looked at the blonde dumbfounded. Yet to her own amazement she was actually considering the idea, albeit hesitantly.

"I'm not sure, if you get too cold you could die. Especially since your normal temperature seems to be quite warm. You're not a being of ice." She did not want to have to explain if the boy died.

Tsurara was met with a rather irresistible and pleading look from the blonde. The large sorrow filled blue eyes and whisker like scars only made the already hard to resist plea even more powerful. She gave in with an incredulous sigh. 'Besides everything that happened recently I'm pretty sure he isn't a human. Hopefully whatever monster he is it's resistant.'

"I'll let you try it, but if I see any problems I'm stopping it immediately." She let go a sigh as she reached into the sleeves of her kimono to pull out a familiar sucker and hand it to the blonde.

Wasting no time he unwrapped the sucker and put it into his mouth. A shudder went through his body as he felt his body temperature lower significantly. In fact his body temperature almost qualified as sub-zero. There was an initial shock which made Naruto shiver but other than that nothing's wrong. At least that was what he _convinced _himself.

He couldn't help but feel something was wrong though. It gnawed at him at the back of his mind. He choose to dismiss it as a figment of his imagination.

"I'm fine!" Naruto announced before a hand, neither cold nor warm, touched his cheek.

"Yes it appears it did." While Tsurara didn't react she was a bit concerned. Making a mental note to ask Kazeshi or Miyuki about this later she continued observing Naruto.

Naruto tenderly brushed a few of Mizore's purple locks back as he mumbled a few words of hope under his breath. He was oblivious of Tsurara's analytical gaze.

Tsurara couldn't help but smile at what went on, once again yuki-onna proved themselves as Tsurara caught every single word Naruto mumbled. It felt like the perfect family scene.

Though moments later a loud 'growl' was heard. Naruto blushed.

"Naruto-san, how about we go and get some food?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head with his hand before getting up, his face sheepish as he smiled his answer.

.

.

.

After several gruelling attempts at navigation, the two finally managed to find their way to the kitchen. Tsurara was trying to keep her annoyance to herself. It was made easier though as her mood was lifted every time she saw how Naruto would look at everything around him in awe.

Naruto with his obsession over a certain kind of food had pretty much set out on a quest for it.

'Ramen, Ramen, Ramen.' Whistling a happy tune he searched everywhere. Finally he came across a red cabinet. That had a chibi version of a woman with long red hair holding a peace sign. Opening the cabinet, he felt like he had died and moved on to ramen heaven.

'Beef curry special ramen, pork and seafood ramen, special spiced dark ramen, …' Naruto's eyes were glazed over as he stared at the hundred, no thousands different flavoured ramen. In fact, while there was cup ramen everywhere he noticed something at the side. A book, at least as thick as a special edition dictionary.

Reaching over, Naruto grabbed it and as he opened it an imaginary bright white light shone upon him. Naruto's mouth watered and his eyes widened at shock then glee at what was in the book.

The book was actually Kushina's ramen recipe book. Full of recipes she had collected or made herself. There were at least a thousand different recipes.

Naruto was in the middle of a very weird dance which involved bowing down and thanking the creation that was ramen. Then the two local phoenixes walked in. Their palms met their faces at the sight.

'He is definitely Kushina's son alright.'

Miyuki then noticed something that caused a slight twinge in her heart. Tusrara was, currently entranced by her lollipop drawer…

Meanwhile Kazeshi had taken a seat. His eyebrow twitched as he watched the rather comedic scene in front of him. Naruto had prostrated himself towards the cabinet while muttering prayers. His eyebrow twitched even more as she saw Tsurara pleading Miyuki to let her have some lollipops.

"Oi", his quiet attempt at gathering their attention was met with more shenanigans. Naruto had started to embrace the ramen recipe book like his life depended on it. Miyuki was dangling some of her lollipops in front of Tsurara.

"OI!" Miyuki and Tsurara seemed to notice and they both recollected themselves. Smoothening out their clothes they had both blushed from embrarssment.

Kazeshi head throbbed, he could feel the vein popping. Naruto, was oblivious to everything but his little ramen world. A very sturdy hand on Naruto's shoulder though woke him up.

Naruto looked up at Kazeshi and just froze as he broke out in cold sweat. 'Gulp' Naruto swallowed his saliva as he could practically see Kazeshi's 'malicious' aura. Kazeshi's blank face and wide empty made almost made Naruto rethink his obsession over ramen, _almost._

After what felt like an eternity, Kazeshi spoke. "We need to talk." Naruto didn't even notice when Miyuki and Tsurara appeared by their sides. Before he knew it Miyuki had brought him to the room he had slept in while Kazeshi and Tsurara stayed behind.

.

.

.

"Naruto-Kun." Naruto looked at Miyuki, she appeared to have joy in her orbs.

"Let me tell you a story. In the past..." the next hour was spent by Naruto occasionally oozing glee at certain parts of the story. Miyuki actually seemed glad, to finally tell someone else her – no their history after so long. It made her place in the world that much more secure.

At the end of the story however it seemed that Naruto had failed to form any connections with it and his current situation. Evident by his bouncing body as he asked for more stories.

Miyuki had to consciously repress her urge to whack the blonde. "Kazeshi and I are actually thousands of years old, in fact we're not even human." Naruto shifted his body a bit as his face conveyed disbelief. His disbelief was easily picked up my Miyuki who just as easily ignore it.

"Together Kazeshi and I had 3 beautiful daughters. We were very happy for a time." Naruto could see the joy as it flashed through her eyes.

However one by one we lost them. One of our daughters, became too injured. Two others were lost. One of these two was Kushina Uzumaki." Naruto gasped as he heard the woman's family name. Missing the passing emotions that subtly showed themselves in the woman's demeanour.

"Uzumaki…" Naruto whispered… The sucker in his mouth fell.

"We had lost her many decades ago. However we always hoped she could come home. This morning, we saw her name registered in our logs when the main door was opened." Disappointment was leaking of her face as her gaze was fixed on the ceiling above them.

"Kazeshi and I were shocked when you managed to open the main doors, because it was locked and only registered people could unlock it." He could feel it too. 'We never found her.' But despite that he couldn't help but notice that Miyuki had a pained smile on her face.

Worry could been seen etched on the boy as he contemplated the possibilities. They were too shocking.

"There were only a few other possibilities left. Hence we checked your blood and DNA."

It was becoming clearer to the blonde, but his mind refused it. Too many had tried in his past - _Never_ again.

"It appears our daughter had a child." Miyuki kneeled down to Naruto's level and with welcoming eyes looked at the blonde in his eyes. "Looks like you're part of the family Naruto Uzumaki." That was it.

"No..no..no..no! This is a trick. It has to be. Old man-jiji told me that Uzumaki was randomly given to me because I was an orphan." Naruto shouted as he backed away from the two. His arms waving in disbelief in front of him. Shaking his head trying to block out everything, to get away from reality – what is _real_ actually?

"My fa…family!? I won't fall for it again!" Naruto trembled where he stood, as tears trailed their way down his cheeks. Naruto backed against a wall and hugged his knees as he looked at Miyuki with a desperately hardening face. He wouldn't fall for it again – it was too painful. Too many times he had believed it, just as many times he had his heart torn out.

The thoughts of his jiji[1] betraying overwhelmed him. His jiji was always there for him when no one else was, his jiji always took care of him. Yet now that he thought off it started to smell fishy. 'He always showed up at the last minute – he said he was busy. He always told me people even his ninja had emotions and he couldn't stop them – wasn't he Hokage, the leader of the village?'

'Naruto, what happened to you?' Miyuki was rather shocked, but she hid it well, it wouldn't do to scare off her grandson after all. She hugged the blonde as she whispered calming words into his ear.

"Believe me, you are an Uzumaki, one of us." She patted the boy's hair with one hand. The other secured around his torso.

"No…no" Naruto mumbled weakly.

"Let go, let me and your sofu[2] help." His eyes began to water. His mask wasn't working. He wanted to believe her, especially since with the way he had been treated recently by them had not warranted this reaction.

"Stay with us, we can help you Naruto-kun." It broke. For the first time since he was three or four he let it out.

It was too much for the boy, the joy and shock from finding his family, the pain from his jiji's betrayal. It was too much. Despite having to grow up faster to survive he was still just a child. Naruto fainted from shock. Miyuki gently put the stressed out blonde to bed. Wiping away the tears on the boy's cheeks. She couldn't help but think just what had happened to him.

.

.

.

"Tsurara, I need to know firstly, how long are you two planning on staying here? On a side note I'm can send a letter to your village if you wished." Tsurara nodded as handed him a letter she had written earlier. Before she would answer him though she realised this was also the perfect opportunity to ask.

"Kazeshi, do you know what kind of ayashi Naruto is?" A nod from Kazeshi and she continued. "What would happen if his body temperature were to be lowered drastically?"

Kazeshi narrowed his eyes, the atmosphere in the room suddenly tense. "For starters our powers would be limited as our powers are limited to how hot our body is."

Tsurara felt too open, despite all her shields she felt too open. Kazeshi's gaze seemed to be seeing right through her, searching for even the slightest sign of malicious intent. "Similar to you yuki-onna actually, however the proportions are different."

"Depending on how powerful your kind are the scale would range from 1:1 to 10:1. For us though how high it is, is not limited. We could literally be at normal body temperature but still create flames as hot as the sun." Tsurara's eyes widened in shock and slight fear. Kazeshi seemed to press on as he picked up on the woman's fear.

He could read people, after all being alive for so long one would pick up many things. Kazeshi was now checking if Tsurara would be a potential threat. It would have come off as harsh, but he had to be sure. Too many had tried.

"However the cold after a certain point can bring us pain, slow us down and make us tired." Kazeshi stopped there. After all, there is no point in telling others your weaknesses. Tsurara didn't react further as she suppressed a flinch – she knew what Kazeshi was doing. But to the eyes of someone who has lived millenniums much could still be seen. Kazeshi weighed her reaction and noted it for later.

Thought Kazeshi couldn't be more off in his conclusions. Tsurara was instead thinking of a young blonde boy. 'Maybe I shouldn't have given him a dozen of my suckers.' Somewhere else a blonde unwrapping a sucker sneezed.

.

.

.

Elsewhere a being of power grew frustrated over his failed attempts at peaceful coexistence between monsters and humans. Then another being of similar standing threw a profile of a boy onto his desk. Then a smirk grows on his face as they schemed. The very atmosphere in the room would make grown man waste their pants.

.

.

.

**-+-+-+- 6 Months Later -+-+-+-+-**

He and Mizore had formed a rather strong bond during the six months. It was though rather unclear on what kind of bond it was. It wasn't love that much they knew, besides they were still young. Yet it was more than just a simple friendship. Naruto couldn't tell. He had mostly been alone in the past. He had connected to Mizore very quickly, even possibly desperately quickly. Mizore had only even been met with taunts and jeers but other children around her age.

How would they know if what they had was just a simple but strong friendship? They had never known what a friendship was, they only had pain to compare to.

However there were still _young_. Neither thought too much about it either, possibly due to fear – at what they would discover, possibly for many other reasons.

Naruto had learnt early on about looking a gift horse in the mouth. The number of times it had saved his life already lost to him. The number of time he been treated nicely only to be stabbed in the back later - he didn't know.

His rational mind had screamed at him, that at any moment it was going to turn back to how it always was. He had believed it too for a while. He had been observing the four around him for days, if he had found even one speck of malicious intent he would not have hesitated to leave the island – even if it meant jumping off the island, it would be _less_ painful compared to what could happen.

Yet they had never given him even a single hint that they were lying. He eventually stopped and accepted them, but only partly because they had not warranted his suspicion.

It was mostly because of Mizore. They had known what he was doing. The adults knew, and to his shock so did Mizore. However she had her mother, he had no one – at least, that was what he told himself. She had went beyond what he had always imagined a friend would be. But he almost destroyed it then.

His paranoia was killing him. For three days he had went and hid in the forest surrounding the mansion. Like how he had used to run into the forest of death back in the village, before that snake woman found out.

He never understood why he always felt best at dusk and dawn. They always seemed to give him new energy. He had been sitting on top of a tree staring out at the horizon.

He barely noticed another presence appear beside him. Sparing a quick glance he could easily identify her by her elegant purple hair.

The atmosphere grew tense, the silence was getting to them both. He didn't understand why they wouldn't just leave him alone. He had been foolish that first night in the forest.

She couldn't stand it either. She couldn't subdue her raging emotions as they rose again. Four days ago they had become friends. He had been so open and happy than. Yet the past three days he had distanced himself. She could feel that vile feeling seeping into her.

Three days of being constantly on guard, jumping at even the slightest noise. Naruto was tired. Without turning to look at her he started.

"Hi Mizore." It was simple but it spoke volumes to Mizore. She could feel the tiredness in it. His voice was rough and dry, it didn't reach into her at all.

"Hello Naruto." She couldn't bear to put that endearing 'kun' either. Naruto seemed to realise it as well. It brought a pang to both their hearts.

He needed more time, he didn't know what to do. He was too lost. But he knew that she wouldn't leave him alone. That much was obvious from the way she had been looking for him the past days. He wanted to, but he couldn't keep running. "Why Mizore?"

It was just two words, but it spoke volumes. She couldn't really figure it out herself either. Compared to Naruto though, she at least had had her mother help her in the past. The answer very simply. "Because we're friends."

That statement was not often used in such a strong sense. Tonight he wasn't feeling anxious or panic though. He was simply tired. His soul was weary. The sun had just disappeared behind the horizon. Darkness had started to shroud the place.

Shifting his body so he could lean on the tree's trunk he wasn't sure what to do. Beside him on another limb Mizore seemed to shift herself too, to lean against the tree's trunk. She had given up on staring Naruto down and into giving her answers.

"Friends…" Naruto had whispered softly. As if testing the word. In all honesty though it was to gain more time to think. How was he supposed to know what to do, what to say? He was just an eight year old boy.

Mizore was thinking too. Eventually a memory resurfaced. "I didn't have friends back home. I never really knew what friends were." Naruto understood. It had always been from a third person's point of view.

"haha once told me that a friend was a person you trusted that also trusted you back, someone that knew your stories. Yet she also said that some friends were closer than others - that the closest one was the one that was _there with you_ _when_ your story was being written." Naruto absorbed this. He had longed many times, what a friend was supposed to be without finding an answer. Having one was better than none.

Naruto still did not answer, even after ten minutes. He held on to the hope that Mizore would leave if he didn't. He wasn't sure how he was going to react if she kept this up.

Mizore couldn't bear it. The anticipation was driving her insane. In a messy struggle she was in front of Naruto. Her legs on either side of the tree's limb. Her hands in front of her for support.

Naruto slowly took in her appearance. Her hair was messy, her kimono was out of place but what really struck him was her face – more specifically her eyes.

He didn't realise how selfish he had been. He didn't realise how much he had been hurting Mizore. There were tear tracks on her cheeks, which were still being used.

Her eyes were what really struck him. He remembered from the first night they met. He had blocked off everyone for the past three days, but he never noticed how much of a stress he was placing on the girl's barriers.

Now she had finally reached her limit. Her shields were slowly cracking. Her eyes were unguarded, her very soul was naked to him. Even then he couldn't help but notice how the moon light made her look like an angel, despite her current state.

That vulnerability he saw in her had struck something within him. She was too much like him. He had looked into the eyes of his reflection before. Her eyes were too similar. It was like his heart had just found another key capable of unlocking it. Just like that his own defences fell.

In an instant he had engulfed Mizore in a hug. His head had buried into her shoulder much like how hers had buried into his. His arms had encircled her, afraid to let go lest she disappear – just like Mizore had done.

"We'll always be friends right?" she had to confirm it, to put her heart to rest.

"We'll always be friends, no matter what. It's a promise." He had spoken for them both. At that moment their hearts had wanted the same thing.

What had happened wasn't intended but much appreciated. They knew what had happened, they had found someone else who could truly understand.

.

.

.

Naruto was brought out of his reminiscing as he a stringing pain shot through him again.

"Ow ow ow" Mizore giggled as she applied some healing ointment on Naruto. Apparently there were some attacks that even Naruto's extreme healing couldn't help with and some fire attacks so strong that he couldn't absorb fully.

Truthfully he had endured much worst without uttering a single sound, but the sound of her laughter was something he wanted to hear as much as possible.

Naruto currently had a sucker in his mouth which only made things worse for him by weakening his healing abilities. However to him it was worth it as he refused to harm Mizore.

He could still remember Kazeshi's reaction at finding out he was sucking a yuki-onna's sucker though. It had went much better than he had expected. Kazeshi seemed to be quite understanding despite his bluntness.

**-+-+-+- Flashback -+-+-+-**

Naruto and Kazeshi stood facing each other in one of the training rooms in the mansion. They were sparring with wooden swords and Naruto's back was re-introduced to the ground every few seconds. Naruto had a familiar sucker in his mouth and the sparring match did nothing to help the mild discomfort, weakening and pain caused by it.

Then a sudden heavy blow to his cheek forced the sucker out of his mouth. All at once Naruto felt power course through him as his power jumped through the roof. His sudden increase in speed, which was at least 5 times, caught Kazeshi off guard for a moment.

"Stop." Kazeshi's eyes narrowed and a single outstretch palm face Naruto. Bending down he picked up the sucker.

"Naruto you idiot! You're a phoenix, a being of fire. Why were you sucking a yuki-onna's sucker?!"

"Why? What's wrong with it?" Naruto asked as he looked away.

"You can feel it right? The pain and the lack of power like something is missing." Kazeshi added like salt to a wound as Naruto refused to answer back. "Answer me Naruto."

"I …I didn't want to hurt Mizore." Naruto mumbled.

Kazeshi's eyes softened a bit as he quickly connected the reasons.

Placing a comforting hand on Naruto's shoulder he looked into Naruto's eyes.

"Look, while it's nice that you don't want to hurt your girlfriend." Naruto blushed before vehemently denying the fact that he and Mizore were more than friends, Kazeshi simply continued on. Unknown to them there was another listening in, she too had blushed at Naruto's denials though she could feel a small twinge in her heart.

"When you're training don't eat the sucker. In fact don't hurt yourself when she's not around. Mizore wouldn't want you to hurt yourself would you?" Naruto went from denial, to annoyance then to acceptance. The third listener was shocked, that someone who was a being of fire could take their suckers and not die. Then she felt a feeling of warmth spread throughout her as she heard what the blonde boy was doing for her. Though she wasn't as unknown as she thought.

"Mizore I know you're there, come over here." Kazeshi was looking at the yuki-onna's hiding place, Naruto was looking around frantically for the yuki-onna and said yuki-onna was startled.

When Naruto saw Mizore the first thing he did was snatch the sucker out of Kazeshi's hand. A cold hand stopped him putting it in his mouth.

"Don't." He could see the sadness and concern in Mizore's eyes. "I'm happy that you would harm yourself to avoid hurting me, but like Kazeshi said, how can I be happy knowing you're hurting yourself for me?" Sadness built up in both parties while Kazeshi respectfully took a few steps back.

Naruto remembering how much his heat bothered her removed her hand as the two looked into each other's eyes. With a resigning sigh he spoke. "Fine, but when I'm with you and not training or fighting I'll still eat the suckers."

"Thank you."

The two gazed at each other's eyes for a few moments. An awkward silence descended upon the two.

"Now then, mind telling me why you were spying on us Mizore." Kazeshi inserted himself into their conversation rather abruptly.

Mizore blushed before she mumbled. "haha told me to practice my stalki - stealth skills."

"That's fine, now run along now." Kazeshi said with an awfully innocent face. When Mizore was fully out of sight Kazeshi gained an evil and malicious look and turned on Naruto.

"Here I thought you had no talent." Kazeshi comically cracked his knuckles together while Naruto gulped. "Let's up the ante." Naruto responded with a very pale face.

The screams of a blonde male would have been heard throughout the island for the rest of the day if not for the silencing seals in the training room.

**-+-+-+- Flash back end -+-+-+-**

"Maybe you shouldn't have done that Naruto-kun." Mizore said with humour and a hint of concern. As she put away the ointment Naruto replied. "It was worth it though. He was a pervert, he and those icha icha books." Naruto chuckled as he remembered how he managed to burn at least one of the books before being thrashed by Kazeshi. Though his face quickly became flooded with shock as betrayal gripped his heart.

"Mi…Mizore, why DO YOU HAVE that per…'mmph'…ver…'mmmm'…ted boo…'mmPH!'…k?!" Mizore placed a hand over Naruto's mouth in an attempt to muffle his voice. Mizore looked around to make sure the coast was clear. When Naruto finally stopped she replied as she held in her hand a very familiar orange book.

"It's a nice book Naruto-kun. Besides in my village we're introduced to things like this early on due to out short fertile periods, and stuff like this isn't taboo to talk about. In fact haha was the one that gave me this book a few days ago." With every passing second into Mizore's reasoning Naruto's face became paler and paler.

"But…but it's perverted and perverts are bad! Sakura-chan would kill me if she found me with that book!" Naruto shook his head as he refused to accept the reality around him.

His personal purple-haired stalker suddenly froze. "Who's Sakura-_chan_? The emphasised 'chan' went unnoticed to Naruto. The temperature suddenly dropped as Mizore's eyes suddenly snapped up to met Naruto's.' Her…HER EYES …their glowing!' Wetting his suddenly dry lips he decided to come clean.

Mizore was not amused in the least. "Sounds like she's nothing but a bitch who won't be able to notice a perfect man even if one smacked into her face." Naruto could faintly make out her words and would have quickly defended the pink girl if not for two things. Mizore's glowing eyes bore deep holes into his own, almost daring him to say something. Then there was a sudden thought from the back of his head that resonated with Mizore's words.

Though Mizore had continued on, but not before mentally marking 'this pink haired bitch' in her mental 'To-maim list'.

"It's only bad if you're perverted with the wrong people or at the wrong times or places." Naruto had covered both his ears with his hands by this point furiously shaking his head while vehemently denying everything.

Unfortunately for the two Tsurara and Miyuki walked over to the two bickering and amusing kids bearing bad news. They did not want to break up such an amusing scene but they had put the issue off long enough.

"Naruto, Mizore." Mizore's mother and Naruto's sobo[3] bore rather hesitant faces.

"Mizore, tomorrow we have to go back to the village to further your training." Both of the children looked on in shock.

"Why? -" the question was ignored and cut off by Miyuki.

"Besides Mizore's presence on our island prevents us from fully training you Naruto."

The children looked at each other, then to the adults. Before they could even open their mouths they were shot down once more.

"No buts, we already stayed longer than I planned because of you musume. Although before we leave you two have the rest of the day to yourselves." Tsurara's 'matchmaking instincts' were rather adamant on the last part. She really didn't want her musume being married off to some random stranger. Miyuki shot her a suspicious look but didn't say anything.

The two kids merely resigned to their fate and went off.

Kazeshi walked towards the two adults a few moments later.

"I can't believe it, all of you actually forgot." Tsurara and Miyuki looked at Kazeshi with slightly confused faces before both of them had looks of realisation.

"I guess we might as well make it a surprise then."

.

.

.

Naruto was walking around aimlessly. Mizore had been taken away by her mother half an hour ago for unknown reasons. He couldn't help but feel something was missing though. Thinking of his purple haired friend he was quickly becoming unfocused as a memory hit him.

.

.

.

Naruto was unconscious on his bed after a tiring training session from Kazeshi. He would have sworn that Kazeshi still held a grudge at him for almost landing him into trouble with Miyuki even though he had said it was fine. Unsurprisingly he never noticed a purple-haired girl sneaking into the room. A cold but comforting hand touched his cheek and when they glided over his whisker marks he purred. The girl jumped slightly at this. Then a playful glint appeared in her eyes as he stroked the whisker marks again.

Suddenly the blonde boy opened his eyes as he once more found himself on a recently familiar bed with a something soft gliding over his face. He heard a faint gasp and whatever had been touching his face quickly disappeared.

It was rather comfortable for him, and any other person would have gladly went back to sleep. However years of abuse and months of living on the streets had engraved into him numerous survival instincts that had saved his life more times that he could count. He jumped upright and his hand glided over the bottom of his feet.

Naruto quickly pulled a kunai out from under his pillow and almost instantaneously had it right below the chin and up against the neck of his possible attacker. He would have gone on and immobilise his 'attacker' further had a familiar gasp not broken him out of his trance.

"Na..Naruto.." he was met with the sight of his first and only friend. Her eyes seemed to waver slightly and he could see fear within her beautiful orbs. Her neck was slightly higher like how a person's head was when a knife was held under their chins. Yet even then the moon light that had streamed in from his windows still served to make her look like an angel.

He snatched his hand back as fast as he could and hurled the kunai away like it had stung him. Stumbling onto his feet he quickly faced Mizore. "Sor..Sorry… !" His sputtering was silenced as Mizore put a shaky finger on Naruto's lips. Naruto took in a large breath before he started this time. "Sorry Mizore. Old habits die hard."

From what she had already learnt of the boy's past Mizore understood. Seeing the sadness flooding his beautiful azure orbs, she knew that she had to help.

"Tell me." Naruto's eyes had widened for a second, he had understood her question clearly. Had it been anyone else he would probably have tried to stop himself, but he felt the connection he had to Mizore – especially when their eyes met. Gently pulling her to sit down beside him he started.

"I used to live alone and isolated, but I knew they wouldn't ever leave me alone. I was always so constantly afraid that someone would stab me in the back that I just sort of developed these tendencies and reactions." His voice became quieter near the end as he looked out the window at the moon.

Mizore had not spoken, and she did not need to as he could feel it. Mizore wasn't going to leave him to deal with this alone, especially not after the past few nights that had shared.

Leaning backwards so that he was supported by the wall he slowly lowered his eyes to Mizore's.

But like he had said, old habits die hard. He was still half-expecting her to meet him with scornful eyes. He held his breath.

He relaxed the instant their eyes had connected again. She understood. She shifted herself slightly, nearer to Naruto.

She knew what he had been thinking. "We promised right? I won't leave you, especially not for something as trivial as this." He couldn't help it, his emotions got the better of him. His shields and barriers that had served him for years never worked when Mizore was with him. She always seemed to see him for him. Subconsciously popping a sucker into his mouth his hands found their way around her. Her head on top of her shoulder. She willingly returned the hug.

"Sorry Mizore-chan, it's jus..- Thank you." Releasing her from his embrace he reached up to wipe his forming tear away.

Mizore beat him to it. Her hand was soft, it as pleasant against his skin. Even though it was brief he had to stop himself from sinking in too far into her touch.

"Besides, you're not afraid of me." Mizore whispered that, and although it was laced with confidence Naruto could still feel a slight hint of fear in her words. It seemed he wasn't the only one that was still unsure.

Mizore transformed in front of him, her hair froze over and her hands were coated over with ice claws. His room chilled suddenly and there was some snow swirling around her. Naruto found that slight hint of worry in her eyes hard to bear.

Naruto gave her another hug that stunned her. "I'll always be your friend Mizore. Besides you're pretty no matter what form you take." Her fear had been utterly driven out to be replaced by warmth as her eyes quavered. "Besides, you shouldn't be worried about me hating you. I'm already happy that you haven't started to hate me. So don't ever think I will."

The corners of her mouth tugged upwards to form a smile.

"You're the first person that's not an adult I've shown my true form to and not freak out and run away. Haha always told me that for some reason my powers developed much earlier than the other children." Naruto understood her pain. He reached up to brush a few strands of her hair that had fallen out of place when she transformed back.

"Even then some of the adults seemed rather scared and fearful seeing a young child already being able to transform." Naruto could understand that himself, he gently squeezed her hand.

They both looked at each other's faces. They felt complete.

"It doesn't matter what you are or what you've done, I'll always be your friend Mizore/Naruto." Both children whispered so low that the other only barely caught the words.

Their bond were secured a little more that night.

.

.

.

Naruto was thrown out of his daydream as something cold hit the back of his head. Turning around he was met with the sight of Mizore holding snowballs in her hands. Before he could ask what happened a snowball impacted with his face.

"HEY!" He furiously wiped the snow off his face to see Mizore running down the hallway while her nervous and playful expression. He ran straight after her. After running up and down some stairs, winding around some corridors Mizore disappeared into a room. Still caught up in the 'game' Naruto approached the door and opened it only to be blinded by darkness. Then a sudden flash and the single shout of "Happy Birthday Naruto!" reached his ears.

He looked frozen, in front of him were Tsurara, Mizore, Kazeshi and Miyuki all with cone shaped party hats. There was a simple cake on a table in front of him with nine candles on it.

Naruto was still frozen with shock as he remembered what he was missing the whole day. Suddenly emotions flooded him and he had to wipe tears that had built up.

"Th..thank you." Engulfed in a hug from all four directions. While the adults had been told why he would react like this Mizore wasn't. Confused yes, but since Naruto managed to recollect himself within seconds she filed it away for later.

That night Naruto experienced a birthday party for the first time in his life. Ate a birthday cake that wasn't made of trash and rotten food for the first time. For the first time got birthday gifts that wasn't bought by himself. He had been given a battle outfit that was reinforced by seals by Miyuki and Kazeshi that could turn into a casual set of clothes with a small application of his energy. A year's supply of suckers from Tsurara, apparently she always had a few years' worth on her. Mizore had promised a surprise later.

That night he truly found a place in a family, a place where he belonged.

.

.

.

**-+-+-+- Later at night -+-+-+- **

Naruto and Mizore walked side by side walking around the perimeter of the island. Both of them had similar suckers in their mouth.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" Mizore asked as they both laid down looking up at the night sky.

"Yeah…" the two were beside a lake, near the edge of the floating island. Turns out the island was very big, big enough to fit more than a few dozen 'Konoha'.

It was a content silence. Rare for Naruto who often had a hectic and noisy life. Rare for Mizore who often had quiet periods alone where something was always amiss. Rare for both of them whom often had lonely nights where they would simply stare into nothing and ask 'why?'.

Mizore had thoughts about her village's traditions. She really wanted to confirm something tonight.

Sitting up sideways with her head slightly crooked she got Naruto's attention. She was mulling over her words, unsure of how to phrase it.

Naruto had other ideas. "You look cute with you head crooked like that Mizore-chan." That simply comment had thrown whatever she had been currently thinking out the window. A slight blush adorned her cheeks.

"Naruto, could you promise me something?" Unease had seeped its way into her, slowly twisting her gut.

Naruto was listening, especially at the promise part. Nodding he let her continue.

"Promise me.. promise me pr.." She couldn't bring herself to say it out loud. Naruto didn't seem to mind.

"You don't have to ask me for something Mizore. I'll promise you anything." Naruto had replied, not because he was just being Naruto this time, but rather because it was Mizore, his friend.

"No, I have to ask you, I have to." She mumbled the last part. "Would…would you…accompany me to pick snowwhites when I turn seventeen."

"Yes Mizore-chan. I promise." It had never occurred to Mizore that her choice of words would have left Naruto clueless. It had never occurred to Naruto just _what _he had agreed to. In fact she herself wasn't too clear on what the ceremony entailed either.

Her mother was rather vague when she had asked a few month ago. 'When you finally find the one, you'll know. Your heart will know. The one _person_ that is and will always be your most precious.' Despite their rather more accepting ways when it came to more mature subjects with yuki-onna, a girl that was still as young as Mizore would never have realised just what her mother had actually meant.

He was slightly confused at the odd request but he didn't mind. Everything they did together was always enjoyable.

Mizore put her hands together and focused. A small white snowflake the size of the breadth of a normal drink can appeared after minutes of intense concentration. It was a single pure crystal, only able to be formed when a snow maiden was truly sincere and had no malicious thoughts. Taking on a slip of paper from her kimono sleeve she put it onto the snowflake. Moments later the seal transferred onto the snow flake became invisible.

"The past few months I trained to get this shape down, then I got Kazeshi-san to make a seal for me. The seal can store enough of my energy to last it a few centuries under normal temperatures and I can refill it easily as it takes only miniscule amounts of my youkai. Like this the snow flake will never melt as long as there is my youkai inside it."

She presented it to him with both her hands as she looked into Naruto's eyes. "This is our promise."

She wasn't expecting a hug from the blonde. "Tha…thank you Mizore-chan" It was beautiful.

Within the snowflake were small designs of the snowwhite fields back in Mizore's village.

It was beyond beautiful, as Naruto looked into the gift, he could make out an endless field of snowwhites.

That night their bond was deepened once more. The two once again slept beside each other in the open under the night sky. This time though their hands were interlinked.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

A/N)

Quick science fact for those who do not know how heat works.

1.) We measure heat and call it heat energy instead of cold as heat is something we can actually measure. We can't measure cold. It's the same as light and dark.

2.) You feel cold when you lose heat. You feel warm when you gain heat. So if your skin and internal body temperature was as cold as ice then ice would feel normal to you room temperature during winter would feel warm, that is if you are still alive. Same thing for if your body is as hot as the sun, the sun would feel normal while room temperature would feel cold.

3.) If you don't believe 2, here's a simple experiment to prove it. Put one hand in cold water and the other in very warm water for a minute. Now put both hands in water at normal room temperature and the hand that was cold would feel warm while the hand that was warm would feel cold.

[1]: 'jiji' : grandfather/old man

[2]: sofu : grandfather

[3]: sobo : grandmother


	5. Chapter 5 Strength

A/N)

Note: I forgot to take into account school work. As such I'll be updating on weekends starting next week. Not Thursdays.

Disclaimer: I hereby claim that I the author of the fanfic below do not in any shape or form own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, Rosario + Vampire and Rosario + Vampire capu2. However the ideas and storyline are mine.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

**Chapter 5: Strength**

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."  
― Lao Tzu

.

.

.

Two male figures could be seen dashing at each other at speeds which most others couldn't follow. One held immense power, the other untold potential.

They collided and a single shockwave originated from where their open palms made contact. Almost immediately Kazeshi swung his right leg under Naruto and pushed down on his hand. As Naruto fell to his right and his right hand touched the ground. Bending his knees which were tilted to his left he pushed up and Kazeshi was sent flying into a tree as his right hand bounced forward and swiped his left leg off the ground. The corners of Naruto's mouth twitched upwards.

"Nice job Naruto, but don't get cocky." a very familiar voice came from behind the blonde. Naruto spun round only to be met with a fist to his face courtesy of Kazeshi who had gotten behind him.

"We'll start on controlling your inner energies next, seeing that your girlfriend isn't here anymore no worries of her getting burnt." A cry of denial came from what used to be a tree as Naruto got back onto his feet and followed Kazeshi.

They came upon a small pond in a wide clearing.

"First I'm going to have to teach you how to walk on water." Kazeshi said to the blonde.

"I can already do that." At Kazeshi's curious look he continued. "I was chased so often by the villagers that when I saw some ninja walking on trees and water once I set out to learn it. I managed to get it down in a few days." Naruto explained as he gave a wide smile.

"Unfortunately, you'll have to relearn water walking as when you released your youkai for the first time it messed up your energy control. Now I'm pretty sure you can't even separate and use the energies independently." Naruto stared at him for a few seconds.

"EHH!" A loud cry of shock could be heard accompanied by a splashing sound as Naruto had decided to test it for himself. Kazeshi face-palmed. 'Why am I surprised?'

Kazeshi simply watched as Naruto kept trying. Naruto got back up when he failed the first time, the second time and the third. On the fourth time he did something different. Kazeshi felt it from where he was.

It was too late for Kazeshi to stop the poor boy.

"Boom!" Naruto had unknowingly channelled some of his youkai and mixed it with his chakra.

Kazeshi launched himself into the smoke which had formed.

Suddenly a manly shout of pain were heard.

"OWWW! Miyuki-koi, please..let..go?" Tears fell down his face rather comically.

Miyuki walked calmly out of the smoke, Naruto was slung over her arm a bit dazed but fine. Kazeshi was being dragged by his ear.

"Kazeshi I saw what you were doing you lazy husband, trying to take a nap while your grandson trained." Miyuki voice promised pain, or in Kazeshi's case a night on the couch.

"Err …erm…I…" It was at this moment of Kazeshi's attempts to defend himself when Naruto saw something very interesting that sparked his inner fury.

"Ero-Sofu[2]!" Naruto held up an orange book.

Miyuki's rage flooded her face "Kazeshi-koi! You know I don't mind and like doing some things in that b… I mean you reading that but you should have been focusing on Naruto!" Miyuki's face was cherry red. Internally she was hoping with her fingers crossed and eyes to the sky. Naruto was shocked, stunned and betrayed!

Unfortunately for her it seemed Naruto was slightly more intelligent at some things. "EHH! ERO-SOBO[3] ERO-SOFU!" Naruto pointed his hands accusingly at the two adults.

Miyuki eyes widened and her face got redder, a deer caught in headlights. Kazeshi wasn't without dignity.

"Naruto, go back to your practice, when you relearn everything you knew we'll continue. For now Miyuki and I have some things to do." The fact Kazeshi said that with a strained face only cemented the facts in the poor boy's mind.

"Why Kami-sama! WHY! I'm surrounded by perverts." All hope seemed lost as he realised the gravity of the situation. Then all of a sudden his saving light appeared. 'Although, Mizore did say that being a pervert might not be such a bad thing…'

Naruto's changing reaction was unnoticed to both adults as both had already made their way back to their room.

"Focus. Focus Naruto." Naruto spent the rest of the day taking showers in the lake as his mind kept rethinking the definition of pervert with slight pinch of Mizore' influence.

.

.

Tsurara and Mizore stood in a snow covered clearing. It was frustrating as she tried a new method for creating ice that would help her make denser and clearer ice. Her mother had told her to imagine, like webs, interconnected.

Mizore mumbled an affirmative as he put her hands in front of her palm facing each other. She thought of snowflakes, with their unique structure interlocking like pieces of a jig saw puzzle. The snowflakes then became more complicated as more angular parts grew from it and connected with other similar snowflakes. Soon a piece of ice formed in between her shaking hands. It was rough and angular like a coarse rock. Then she imagined every 'snowflake' in her mind locking together and compacting together. The coarse rock suddenly became smaller and smoother forming a small pebble.

She released her breath and held the piece of snow in one hand as a bead of sweat flowed down her face.

"Quite good musume. The ice is well compacted and dense. However there are a few places where the ice hasn't formed properly. Tusrara finished off her statement as with the tip of one of her ice claws tapping a spot on the ice pebble. It shattered into many tiny pieces.

"What you did just now was wrong. You have to form and compact it simultaneously, not compact it after you've formed it. This way you ensure that the ice crystals are layered properly." Mizore simply looked in disbelief. It was hard enough forming such intricate and complex ice crystals and compacting them together, but to do it while compacting the ice was … going to be very hard.

Putting her hands together once more she tried again. 15 minutes later there was a pile of broken ice pieces below here. Her mother had already formed a small chair out of ice and simply sat there observing her.

Another 15 minutes later the pile of ice below her had grown.

An hour later her hands were shaking from exertion and the collar of her white kimono was slightly wet and frozen.

Frustration was slowly encroaching her mind, sparing a glance at her mother she was met with her mother slightly encouraging face, for the tenth time.

Sighing she tried once more, preparing to quit for today if she failed this time. This time while she was forming the ice Naruto's determination rang through her mind. ' He wouldn't give up, he would keep trying even if it took him years. Would…would he be disappointed with me?' that very thought threatened to shatter her concentration. 'He..he wouldn't! He would believe in me, he would tell me to keep trying.' She continued with a slowly steeling resolve. Unknown to her however as she was lost in her mind and concentration ice had started to form in between her hands.

Tsurara's eyebrow hitched slightly in interest at what was forming between her musume's hands. It was somewhat humanoid, it had two feet and two arms. It was slowly gaining more and more detail. The clothes became more defined. The face was slowly forming. Three whisker-like markings on each side of figure's face was enough of a clue for Tsurara to tell who it was. She chuckled internally as she saw how her daughter was completely focused on her thoughts on forming dense ice. Then her daughter did something that slightly shocked her.

'She's not consciously doing it, but she's adding slight shades of colour into the ice. Even most adults in the village can't do this. In fact only a few others and I can add colours into our ice and even that it takes a lot of effort.'

The figure's face gained more colour, but what was really stunning was the hair. A spiky mop of hair, blonde in colour. Tsurara dashed forward as her daughter finished forming the figurine and her eye's rolled to the back of her head as her body swayed slightly before falling onto the snowy ground.

'Well, not exactly what I expected but I really shouldn't have been surprised. They did bond rather well during those few months they were together.' Carefully handling the figurine her daughter created she carried her daughter back home.

.

.

.

Back home Tsurara had just opened the door when a rather familiar bird flew into her home.

Looking at the peculiar stripe that ran along the back of the bird she called out. "Miyuki?"

The bird seemed to grin before it got bigger and lost its feathers. A humanoid shape slowly stood up from what used to be the bird.

"Hello Tsurara." Miyuki answered.

"Is your daughter alright?" Her face quickly took on a worried expression as she noticed Mizore asleep being carried by her mother.

"She's fine, just exhausted from training. So what are you doing here?" Tsurara closed the door as she headed up to Mizore's room. Miyuki behind trailing behind her.

"Nothing much, just to give you some letters. Tsurara sweat-dropped. 'She came all the way here…to deliver letters.'

Tsurara went up to place her daughter in bed and when she returned to the main room she saw lots of squiggly lines with the occasional kanji on the walls. They disappeared a few seconds later.

"Privacy seals." Miyuki simply stated. Though at the mention of seals Tsurara remembered something. "Why don't you just create a dimensional door here?"

"Kazeshi and I don't want to have a possible risk to our home. I hope you understand." Tsurara understood perfectly well. It's not that they didn't trust Mizore or her. It's that the door to their home would be placed in a too vulnerable location.

After she had concluded that she found Miyuki handing her a small package that just come out of a cloud of smoke. Tsurara was used to such things after living with them for 6 months. She could even remember the first time she had reacted in shock when Kazeshi did something more than usual with seals.

.

.

.

"AHHHHH!" Tsurara's scream of surprise rang loudly throughout the island as she and Miyuki were caught off guard by trees… Although her sucker somehow remained in her mouth.

They were taking a simple stroll in the forest when all of a sudden a faint white circle appeared around them each. Miyuki had paused to inspect the seal but she didn't get much time as merely a few seconds later vines and branches, heck even the limbs of trees suddenly started to move and surround them. Vines from the ground and vines handing off trees suddenly sprung at the women. Then roots sprung from the ground and circled around their legs. Relatively thin branches from surrounding tress wrapped around their hands. Then more vines had started to bind the women. Their fingers were kept separated and immobilised, their legs were pulled apart and had vines wrapped around both legs. More vines encircled around both their torsos and lifted them into the air. There were vines binding the women on almost every part of their body. Almost the worst were the thick coils of vines around their joints that kept them from bending their limbs or even moving their necks. The worst were that many of the vines had went under their clothes and were binding them in direct contact with their skin. To top it off a vine had wrapped around their heads effectively gagging them. Looking around the limbs of the trees had somehow interlocked and formed a thick wall of wood around the two women. Even worse was that when the women tried to use their abilities to freeze or burn the plants binding them they found they couldn't. It felt like the vines that had direct body contact were draining them of their energies. Then everything stopped, leaving the two women stuck, spread-eagled in mid-air.

It would be twenty minutes of hanging in mid-air, 'enjoying' the breeze especially in between their thighs and on their bare skins as their kimonos had been pulled slightly apart due the forced spreading of their thighs and rough binding, later that Kazeshi suddenly appeared in front of them looking very pale, especially when Miyuki's eyes bore holes into him.

Kazeshi formed a few hand gestures and the vines gagging the women went away.

"KAZESHI! As much as I enjoy certain things you do to me when we're having fun in bed….." Miyuki caught herself before she embarrassed herself further. Her face had gone strawberry red.

Kazeshi saw this as on opportunity and a blessing from kami. "SORRY! I was upgrading our security seals when I accidently added in a few seals that removed most of your and my security authority. It took my some time to re-insert enough of my security permissions to make sure they wouldn't attack me and disengage them." Somehow though Kazeshi had not once made any sign of noticing their less than decent states of clothing, especially as heir kimonos had parted slightly, enough to expose their bras and inner thighs.

"Right now I can only manually remove the security defences one by one so bear with me." With that said Kazeshi seemed to regain some colour in his cheeks as she performed more hand-signs and chanted some sentences. Slowly the vines, roots and branches, that had bound the women slowly returned to normal and released the women. When they were back on their feet Tsurara turned around to re-adjust her clothing. She turned back just in time to see Miyuki give Kazeshi a very dangerous look that promised pain.

Kazeshi gulped as he formed another hand-sign that caused the thicker limbs from the trees that had formed a wooden wall around the area to return to normal.

Unfortunately for them Kazeshi had made a few other mistakes. The trip back to the mansion was full of Kazeshi chanting and forming hand-signs. As every single step either women took seemed to trigger off more defences. Luckily none were lethal.

It was funny to see Miyuki glare at Kazeshi for the rest of the day and how Kazeshi would simply whimper and crawl into a fetal position every time.

.

.

.

After she had taken the package Miyuki had simply disappeared after uttering a few sentences that included Kazeshi and baka. Tsurara simply shook her head and mumbled some words of disbelief.

Taking a seat on her sofa she opened the package. There were some scrolls and a smaller pouch. Taking an envelope with 'Read Me' on it she found two letters.

One for her and one for her daughter. She opened the one for her.

"Hi Tsurara. I went 'digging' my family library and I found some scrolls that might interest you. They are mostly snow and ice techniques that had been left to collect dust over the years. However seeing as they came from our family library I would have to request that you don't share them with anyone else except your daughter." Tsurara spared a glance at the scrolls, and truth to be told they did look quite old. The edges were slightly yellow and ragged. Still the thought of learning new skills interested her.

"Miyuki probably explained why we will not leave a dimension door here. If she didn't then it's because it would be too much of a security risk, besides the energy leakage from it would probably attract other unsavoury types. However I did include a way for you to contact us and even summon me and Miyuki. Three scrolls in the package, as small as a small book. The edges of the scrolls are all tainted snow-white."

Taking out more scrolls from the package she eventually saw the mentioned scrolls at the bottom of the package.

"The scrolls are marked 'Miyuki', 'Kazeshi', and 'Item." The first two are self-explanatory. The other one allows us to transport small items. To do that unroll the scroll and place an item inside the black circle and inject some of your energy into it. DO NOT TRY TO TRANSPORT LIVING THINGS."

Noting the warning as she could practically imagine Kazeshi in her mind warning her with his serious-tone. She shivered.

"Oh and me and Miyuki have decided to send Naruto to youkai gauden when he turns fifteen to learn how to socialise with others." Tsurara internally laughed. 'Anyone would need to learn how to socialise if they lived with you for a few years.'

"So until next time Tsurara. By the way Naruto included a letter for Mizore. In light of this Miyuki wants to talk to you sometime, something about young love or something like that." She had to suppress her 'matchmaking' tendencies at that point. She couldn't wait to tell Miyuki about what Mizore had made earlier today either.

"On a side note. Miyuki included a pouch of lollipops from her collection." All thoughts flew out of her head at this point as she snatched the small pouch out from the package and started to pour out its contents onto her table. Her mouth had already overflowed as her fingers twitched. If lollipops could talk one would hear the frightened screams and whispers that came from the Shirayuki's household that day.

.

.

.

**-+-+-+- 2 years later -+-+-+-**

Mizore was bubbling with excitement that much was certain to Tsurara. While they were both mostly emotionless it wasn't hard for Tsurara to see the overflowing joy in Mizore's orbs. Her mother had temporarily stopped her training yesterday in light of today. They had just received a letter yesterday from Kazeshi that said that since Naruto finally managed to gain sufficient control over his inner energies. According to the letter Kazeshi wanted to try something on the two yuki-onna that he _guaranteed_ wouldn't be that bad. Miyuki was due to arrive in a few minutes.

She had come earlier than expected. Tsurara had bent down to pick up a fallen trinket with suddenly a voice from behind her caused her to drop it once more from surprise.

"Hi Tsurara, Mizore." Miyuki's voice… Tsurara would never know how Miyuki could get into and out of her home undetected by her and the rest of the village. Miyuki knew she would never figure it out on her own too. It just made her all the more annoyed.

Tsurara had turned around just in time to see Mizore attach herself to Miyuki's arm. "Miyuki."

"Someone's impatient." Miyuki patted Mizore's head gently as she gave the young yuki-onna a hug.

"Miyuki. Would you like to have some tea first?" Tsurara asked casually while very barely ignoring the death glare Mizore suddenly shot her.

"Thanks, but I don't think little Mizore here can wait." Tsurara just gave a small laugh as Mizore blushed.

Gently detaching Mizore from her frame Miyuki walked over to a wall and just like how Tsurara had seen Kazeshi do two years ago she tapped the wall gently and that familiar wooden door appeared. This time Mizore was the first to enter the door. The two woman left behind didn't even have to hold in their laughter anymore.

Then they suddenly stopped and turned to meet each other's faces. After a few tense minutes Miyuki pulled out a black pouch from her kimino and handed it to Tsurara's outstretched hand. Loosening it a bit to check its contents Tsurara didn't bother holding back a grin. Then pulling out a scroll she handed it to Miyuki that had the label 'Stalk'.

Back at the mansion Kazeshi suddenly shivered as his head whipped around frantically looking for his imaginary foe.

.

.

.

Mizore had appeared where she had the first time she got here. Almost immediately she had set out to find her friend. Putting the stal-stealth skills her mother had thought her the past two years to use.

She snuck into what she remembered was Naruto's room through the window only to find it empty. However her efforts were not in vain.

'This is still Naruto's room – check.'

As she breathed in the scent she had missed so dearly it also brought up a memory. The memory of Naruto's promise. Though it wasn't as happy as it used to be as having two years to think with only the occasional letter had not simply gone by. Especially when some of her fellow yuki-onna her age would demean her. 'What boy would ever want you?' 'You'll be lucky to even get an arranged marriage.' 'Even if you find a nice boy you'll probably just scare him off.'

Her excitement was still there, but now it was overwhelmed by a growing fear that had started amassing a few months ago.

'What if he hates me when he finds out? What if…' thinking back, a few months ago her mother had explained just what the snowwhite ceremony was.

.

.

.

**-+-+-+- Flashback -+-+-+-**

Mizore's innocent face met her mother's devious one. Her mother had called her down from her room to apparently discuss something very important that had to do with flowers.

'Flowers, why would flower arranging or knowing what kind of flower it is be so important?' She had been sitting there facing her mother for a few minutes now. When her mother's gaze suddenly fell onto her own she felt a feeling of dread crawl up her spine.

"Musume. I think it's time I've told you exactly what the snowwhite ceremony is."

'Besides, from what I'm starting to see between Naruto and you.' She had to suppress a giggle.

"Tell me again what you know about the snow white ceremony."

Mizore had a rather perplexed looked she decided to humour her mother. "Only what you told me, that it was to help me find someone very important to me and that all yuki-onna have to do it when they turn of age."

Tsurara seemed to mull over this a bit but before she could start on her 'lecture' someone else entered the house. Turning her head to look at the person she could feel the tiniest of grins form on her face. "Yatashi Dear, why don't you come here and help me explain some things to our daughter, thing that have to deal with how babies are made."

In a normal human household the parents would shy away for this _duty_. However in this yuki-onna village things were far from human-like. Although Tsurara's husband was human he had long ago already adjusted to their customs. 'She said it was by fate. I still said it was pure chance I stumbled into her minutes after she had finished her snow white ceremony. Stupid faulty ski gear.' He didn't have any ties to the human civilisation outside the village either so he was one of the few humans who had decided to settle down in the village with their love. Another reason why there were so many single snow mothers.

Yatashi had mirrored her grin, only his was larger and more obvious. He took put his ski gear down and went behind Tsurara. Tilting their heads for a moment the two adults shared eye contact for a few seconds.

Then Yatashi gently brushed an imaginary lock of hair that was out of place on her wife's head. Just like that it was as if a few secret sentences had been passed without verbal communication. Tsurara understood his husband as well as he understood her.

"Musume. The snow white ceremony is a special flower tradition that has helped yuki-onna in this village find our other half, the other person that makes up whole." Mizore had merely bent her head slightly in confusion. As she went through the words again slowly, something clicked. A full blown blush had quickly dominated her face.

"The SnowWhite ceremony is a yuki-onna tradition that has been with us for as long as any of us can remember, even the snow priestess. It is help yuki-onna find love, to help the yuki-onna survive as a race due to their short fertile periods and to bless yuki-onna marriages. Mizore was a bit light-headed as she fully comprehended just what she had gotten herself into with Naruto.

Kazeshi continued as he clasped his hands around Tsurara's chest. "However over the years new customs have been added to make sure that we survive as a race. As such a year after a yuki-onna has went through with the ceremony she will be forced into an arranged marriage if she still has not found a lover." Mizore's stifled a small gasp of shock. The very thought of having to marry and spending the rest of her life with a total stranger was horrifying.

"There are also yuki-onna who find love early and bring their loved ones to the ceremony which then doubles as an engagement ceremony." A mental picture of Naruto formed in her mind. Somehow the thought of suddenly having to spend the rest of her live with Naruto didn't scare her. No the thought of how Naruto might react when he found out that Mizore had in a way tricked him into marrying her was more mortifying.

Although after her parents had let it sink in they also found her changing emotions portrayed on her face interesting. Deciding to _possibly maybe_ 'scar' their daughter for life they started to tell Mizore of their own experiences – with a bit of visual _demonstration_.

While the yuki-onna did not see talking about such mature things as taboo, it was still mortifying for Mizore to hear of her parent's escapades in bed. No sane child would ever want to know that part of their parent's lives.

All her previous thoughts had been effectively buried under horror for the next few days – that was what Mizore convinced herself anyway. Her personal diary on the other hand had several detailed accounts of a certain yuki-onna's fantasies with a young blonde.

-+-+-+- FlashBack end -+-+-+-

.

.

.

Steadying her shaking head with her hands she took a few calming breaths, the extra oxygen however achieved the exact opposite of what was intended. 'What if he thinks I tricked him….what if..' She hadn't exactly been very clear on what she had asked of the blonde that night either. Any further thought that could have served to make her even more petrified was quickly thrown away as she heard the room door creak open. In an instant she was hidden.

'Strange, swore I felt something. A familiar blonde stepped into the room. His trained eyes scanned his room, old habits die hard, and especially ones from his past that had helped him survive more than once. Just as he was almost convinced that there was nothing odd he saw a single strand of purple hair on the ground. He suddenly remembered what Kazeshi had told him about today. Suppressing a growing smile he proceeded to act as natural as possible while extending a few of his other senses.

'Not something I would usually notice but the room temperature is just slightly cooler than usual.'

'The strand of hair is also rather long. Last I remember Mizore's hair was of decent length though.' He had to consciously force his body to relax as he had almost instinctively bent down to take a closer look at the strand of hair.

'Got to remember to thank sofu for teaching me investigative and observation skills. It was painful but now it's definitely paying off.' With every observation Naruto came closer and closer to confirming the identity of the hidden intruder in the room and slowly narrowed her hiding spot. He had to use all his mental will power to suppress his mischievous smile lest he blow his cover.

Mizore couldn't pick on irregularities in Naruto's behaviour even if she tried. She had been away for two years. Naruto could have picked up new quirks, she wouldn't be able to tell. What she did notice though made her heart speed up. Her left hand shakily reached up to brush her purple locks as she noticed a single strand of her hair on the ground right beside Naruto's feet.

She was so focused on that treacherous piece of hair that she never did seem to notice that her target had disappeared. She never noticed a presence behind her either, nor did she notice her target unwrapping and sucking a familiar sucker. She did notice however when the person behind her said something.

"Boo!" It was soft but whispered harshly and sharply. She just practically jumped out of her skin as she shot up, promptly forgetting that she was crouching on a tree outside the blonde's room window.

"Naruto-kun!?" her leg had hit air when she tried to turn around causing her body to fall while rotating sideways. She only caught a glimpse of blonde hair before she suddenly felt two comfortable warm arms warp around her torso. Her body was faced toward the ground and her body angled oddly. One of her legs dangled below her, another hooked onto the tree she was on. Both her arms hung in front of her still in bracing position. Her body was bent at the stomach as her eyes still remained closed.

"Long time no see Mizore-chan." Naruto whispered softly into her ear. Though it was quite the feat considering he felt like he had just ran twenty marathons with a pack of 'serious-Kazeshi- chasing after him, the worst was that some of them probably did get him. He had chosen to ignore his grandfather's warnings. The more the power he had the bigger drain and the worse the pain. The skills he had learnt though helped him effectively cover up the amount of strength he had to use.

Mizore craned her head up to see Naruto looking at her from above. Blood rushed to her cheeks. Upon confirming the boy's identity with her own eyes her heart skipped a beat.

Mizore could feel his warm but firm hands as he gently raised and set her down on the branch next to him. She wanted to feel his hands on her skin. All too soon his hands disappeared and she was left looking at him.

Mizore had grown slightly taller and so did Naruto. Though to Naruto's embarrassment Mizore was slightly taller than him. Mizore giggled softly as Naruto seemed to try and will himself taller. For that short moment she simply forgot her worries.

"So, Mizore-chan do you want to go on a walk?" Naruto had promptly stopped his attempts at 'growing' taller and tried to quickly change the subject lest he embarrass himself more.

Mizore gave a soft nod. But before she had a chance to jump, she felt Naruto's arms warp around her once more. She forgot to move her own legs. Luckily Naruto's strong arms provided more than enough support as she leaned into his arms.

.

.

.

In another room a certain egg pulsed. The seals around the room were glowing red, a sign that the seals were at their limit and about to break.

.

.

.

Unlike the previous walks they had shared this one felt different. It wasn't a simple and content silence. Naruto could feel the awkwardness that blanketed them both but he wasn't exactly a social worker. Mizore was too caught up in her petrifying thoughts to notice much or that the awkward silence probably stemmed from her.

Eventually Naruto was saved from having to break the silence as he took in a large controlled breath.

Wringing her hands together nervously she began. "Naruto, you remember that promise two years ago?"

"How could I forget Mizore-chan?" He stopped and turned to look at Mizore his eyes narrowed. Her eyes were focused on the ground below which was suddenly so much more 'interesting'.

She seemed to become more sombre at this. Naruto eyes though were drawn to her mouth as she wet her suddenly dry mouth. "You promised to pick snow whites with me.." she whispered softly

She couldn't take it. The anxiety was getting to her. She had to change the topic NOW.

"Naruto-kun do you want to… take a walk to that pond?" she mentioned the first other thing that came to mind. Frustration, was what raged in her heart. Why couldn't she ask what she really wanted?

Simply nodding Naruto folded his arms behind his head and Mizore followed beside him as they both jumped off the tree.

She was glad for the distraction the walk provided. Naruto would point our things once in a while, she would simply nod. Forming her next question proved to be rather hard.

"What …" She cut herself off before she even got started. They had both reached the pond already and luckily Naruto didn't seem to notice her small half formed question. Still the building anxiety was slowly getting to her. Her hands were shaking and she could feel tiny beads of cold sweat rolling down the back of her neck. Naruto had plopped himself down beside a tree and when their gazes met again this was it. Mentally reciting the question she took in a large breath.

"Naruto-kun, if you had to marry m- what kind of girl would you want to spend your life with?" Mizore had to stop herself from flinching. It was too hard, she couldn't ask the _real_ question.

"Hmm." Naruto hitched an eyebrow as he took in Mizore's emotionless face. Oddly enough he closed both his eyes as he raised his right hand to his chin. He never actually thought about it. After all when Kazeshi had told him that he would probably live for a very long time he didn't see the need to think about that many things so soon.

"Well, I would want a girl who accept me for who I am, fortes and faults all the same. She would be able stop me if I ever cross the line." His eyes had went to the horizon as he spoke. The golden glow of the setting sun was majestic.

"She would stick by me no matter what I do and pull me back if I ever fall. I could go on and on but I guess at the end of the day I would have feel it with my heart to know." His gaze had fallen onto the girl beside him. At that moment he realised something. 'Someone like you Mizore…'

Sadly for the poor purple-haired girl her heart fell with every word Naruto said. 'She would be able to stop him.' By what she had seen of Kazeshi and Miyuki and assuming Naruto as off the same race as them she wouldn't even be able to hold a candle to him. 'I'm not strong enough to pull him back.' Mizore's heart sank. She wouldn't let it show, she wouldn't. 'They were right, I'll never find a boy. I'm too weak.' It felt like a knife had been shoved into her heart as the harsh taunts of her fellow yuki-onna echoed throughout her mind.

Naruto had not spent the past two years slacking. While Kazeshi had thought him many practical things when it came to fighting. Miyuki had decided to teach him many things that had less to do with fighting. One of those was reading others. He could tell by Mizore's quavering orbs alone that she was sad.

However for the love of everything he couldn't figure it out. So he just decided to do what Miyuki had told him, despite his lack of experience.

Mizore wasn't expected two strong arms to encircle her. "Shhh. Don't be sad Mizore. Tell me what's wrong." She gave a small half-hearted struggle as she tried breaking Naruto's grip on her. It didn't work. A few more seconds and she wouldn't be able to keep her tears from forming. Bringing her hands up to grip something, to anchor her to reality she gripped onto Naruto's shirt.

.

.

.

Something in the mansion pulsed. Some seals had broken. Kazeshi hadn't found all the glitches he made that day.

.

.

.

They didn't get to continue as a sudden burst of hot youkai suddenly washed over them. Naruto wasn't too affected directly but seeing the young girl collapse onto her knees did draw his attention. His heart panged. Around them the area seemed slightly singed.

"Mizore! Mizore-chan, are you alright?" Before she could answer another pulse of hot energy raced towards them. Jumping to the task Naruto focused into making the energy that raced towards them his. He crouched behind Mizore as he pulled her body into his. His body the only thing that stood between her and the fiery energy.

A moan resonated from the forest. With the reprieve Naruto granted her she was able to focus a bit and at that moment one of her mother's lessons surfaced.

"If you ever find yourself at risk of overheating. You won't be able to form ice or snow as they rely on your body temperature. However if you focused on your youkai you can direct it to slowly cool your body down. However there is a risk of running out of youkai very fast as this technique is very demanding." She remembered, she had fainted the first time she tried.

Her mother's words ran through her. She managed to lower her core temperature sufficiently. Just before the next wave of fiery energy struck she shielded parts of herself in ice. To her horror another wave that had piggybacked on the former had caught Naruto off guard and had quickly melted any ice she had formed. Yet the whole time the thought that Naruto had jumped in to protect her dominated her mind. She couldn't focus enough to reform her ice.

Around them the area had caught fire.

Naruto was worried too, but not for himself, his heart clenched. All the extra energy he was absorbing was making the sucker in his mouth melt much faster than usual. Too caught up with the rapidly melting sucker Naruto wasn't prepared for three simultaneous bursts of energy that had rippled through the island.

The fire that surround them roared. The pained gasp from Mizore froze him. His eyes widened and his arms shook.

Mizore was starting to collapse, much like she had that first time when the sun had risen. It was painful to watch. Her breathing grew ragged as she started to soak her kimono. Why was it so hard to breathe all of sudden?

Thinking quickly Naruto snatched out two more lollipops from a seal he had on his arm and started to suck on them. He almost fell over from shock as the cold drained away his energy. His first one had already melted. The other two well on their way. Placing Mizore on his back to shield her from any more pulses he dashed for the adults. His legs were tired, more than usual. The cold really was getting to him. Tightening his grip on Mizore's calves behind him he sped up with a boost in strength. It was increasingly hard to focus, fear was clouding his mind.

Around them fire seemed to be closing in on them, he was absorbing as much as he could. Every little more he took in made the suckers in his mouth melt that much faster. It was only a matter of time now.

He jumped into his room but to his horror he just realised that the pulses seemed to be coming from somewhere within the mansion as another wave of hot energy appeared, speeding towards him through the walls. He hadn't studied fuinjutsu[3] or barrier techniques. He wouldn't be able to draw a temporary barrier for Mizore. A numbness spread throughout his body, yet he didn't drop her. Every pulse that came made the seals around them glow yellow.

Then an idea struck him and he would have slapped himself for not thinking of it earlier had his hands not been on Mizore. Forming a few fire clones without any hand seals he mentally directed them. They formed a circle around him and Mizore. This way they would both be shielded temporarily from the waves of fiery energy. A few more waves came, only to be absorbed by the clones increasing their energy reserves. He sent out a few tendrils of chakra to a nearby seal and within seconds the room temperature had dropped enough for Mizore to recover more comfortably.

Suddenly he could breathe easily again. Cupping Mizore's sweaty face he was struck with relief. Their eyes had connected, at that moment nothing existed but each other. An unexplainable urge suddenly lit within him. Mizore could only see Naruto's head leaning in.

Suddenly his room door had been flung open and Kazeshi stood in the circle with them. Neither children got a chance to ask what was going on as Kazeshi pulled them up.

"Mizore grab onto Naruto and Naruto onto me. There is no time to explain."

Performing his speed technique, which Naruto had yet to learn due to his less than perfect control over his powers, they were both in a familiar room in the basement. Something was different about the seals however.

Miyuki was at the side of them room. Both her hands on the wall. The seals on the wall were glowing orange, with slight tints of red. They were about to break but Miyuki was constantly draining the energy from the seals and into her own body. However even phoenixes had limits.

"Hurry up! I can't absorb much more before my body is overloaded. The place is about to explode. Even we're going to have trouble here." Miyuki had shouted out, the strain in her voice evident. There were already certain parts of the room that had started to fall apart. The whole place was falling apart.

Mizore rushed to her mother's side who was right beside the dimensional door that would lead them back to their house. Pausing a moment, she took Naruto's hand before looking him straight in his eyes. Naruto gave her a pained smile. She faintly felt the hands she were holding shove her back.

This time when they crossed over no one closed the door.

Mizore could see Naruto's outstretched form pointing at her. The last words she heard rooted themselves deep into her mind. Especially with the way Naruto was still smiling as though nothing was wrong. "I'll be fine Mizore. Go home, it's not safe here. I promise we'll both by fine." It was quiet, deafly so, before a loud explosion suddenly obscured whatever she could see form the door.

The last thing she saw would serve to haunt her. Naruto was too focused on making sure she and her mother had made it through. While he didn't show signs of needing to follow them she was sure he wasn't supposed to be injured. A few pieces of debris had caught him off guard and one rather sharp piece had sliced into his right arm. Moments later a rather large part of what used to the ceiling of the room had fallen on his back. The worst was that a sharp edge of the falling part had somehow speared him through his stomach.

She started to struggle to get to her Naruto-kun, to stay by his side. Her eyes watered as adrenaline flooded her system.

Her mother had resorted to pulling her back. As soon as they neared their door at the end of the tunnel a force suddenly threw them back. A black seal had appeared on appeared on both doors which had suddenly closed shut. The seal was made to activate when either end of the tunnel was exposed to danger. It wouldn't be very good if dimensional travel was interrupted. The door disappeared just as Mizore threw herself at it.

Mizore felt numb, she couldn't feel. She collapsed on the floor, seemingly boneless. Tear drops fell on her hands, as she stared aimlessly at the off toward the side. Despite Naruto's smile she knew. After all she herself had worn a mask before, the fake smile didn't fool her for a second. Yet the image of his smile would serve to haunt her.

She could feel her mother picking her up, burying her head into her chest. She hadn't done this since she met Naruto the first time.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

A/N) I feel like the relationship between the two isn't developing right. Does anyone else have similar thoughts? May someone give me tips or advice? The way I'm portraying Mizore also seems to feel wrong, somehow.

[1] : Kage Bunshin no jutsu : Shadow Clone technique

[2] : ero-sofu : Perverted grandfather

[3] : fuinjutsu : sealing techniues


	6. Chapter 6 Fools

A/N)

Disclaimer: I hereby claim that I the author of the fanfic below do not in any shape or form own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, Rosario + Vampire and Rosario + Vampire capu2. However the ideas and storyline are mine.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

**Chapter 6: Fools**

"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"  
― Terry Pratchett, _Going Postal_

_._

_._

_._

She had let them get to her again. Why couldn't she just keep them out? 'Maybe it's because they were right.' She thought. She squeezed her eyes shut, holding back tears. She wouldn't cry again, _never _again.

Taking in a large breath she held it. When she knew her tears wouldn't fall she opened them again. In her hand she held a single silver phoenix.

She felt fresh tears building again. She couldn't help it. Especially not after that day a few months ago.

When she had finally regained some form of thought after being pushed out by Naruto she noticed something cold was wrapped around her hand.

It was a simple silver necklace with crisscrossing chains. At the end a small phoenix hung. The oddest thing about the phoenix were the blue eyes and snowflakes engraved onto it on either side.

Yet those features were what struck her the most. She couldn't help it. He was the only one that had ever understood her, probably the only one she would ever want. He was gone now.

After the accident she had foolishly hounded her mother for days, she didn't believe her own eyes. She didn't stop to think.

.

.

.

'Couldn't she see that this wasn't funny?' Mizore was again at her mother's side. She had told her she had tried.

Her mother had already tried. She had taken out a random scroll Kazeshi had given her. She had used the one marked 'Miyuki'. When she poured her youkai into it didn't work. Instead the seals had pulsed before the scroll disintegrated in front of her. She didn't dare try the other scroll.

She couldn't accept it. 'It was all just a bad dream right?' She couldn't tell anymore.

Every second her daughter hounded her made her heart squeeze just that much tighter. She had managed to come to terms with it, but her daughter. She had lost much more than her.

Snow suddenly filled her vision, and before she knew it she was struck and send flying.

She held her hand to her ribs on her left – she was bleeding. Her eyes widened in shock, her own daughter had struck her. Looking up, she winced. Partly due to the pain. Mostly due to the appearance of her daughter.

Mizore looked - broken. She could see it in her eyes, losing her first real connection to someone outside her family had been too much. Her eyes looked empty yet her face was one of despair.

There was a hole in her heart, a chasm that would probably never fully heal. Clenched in her daughter's right fist was a necklace.

Mizore was slowly approaching her mother in her monster form, she was ready to hit her mother, hit her until she stopped lying to her. She shed no tears.

Her mother was on the ground, her face was frozen in shock. Yet oddly enough it barely made Mizore flinch. Mizore lifted her hand and prepared to drop her rapidly sharpening hand on her mother. The next thing she knew she was on the ground.

Her ice blade shattered beside her. Her fragile grip on her reality slipped further. Her own mother had struck her down.

She attempted to get back up and gut her mother. But her cry of battle was stopped before it even began as she was kicked and her back crashed into a tree.

'Why?' she lay on her side. Her eyes went to her mother.

Her face was guarded, unreadable to her. Yet her eyes were much too open. The tears rolling down her mother's cold face froze her in place.

She felt herself being lifted up by the front of her Kimono. Her eyes darted everywhere, anywhere except her mother's eyes.

Tsurara's heart was hurting. It felt like some part of her was rotting away. The look on Mizore's face, one of absolute despair and betrayal, yet there were no tears. Anymore and her mask would crack.

Mizore could see the cracks clearly, much too clearly. As far as she remembered her mother always had a perfect grip on her emotions.

What's wrong? Something unfamiliar pulsed within her. Was it loneliness? She didn't know why, but her heart just refused to accept it. Lifting her hand she attempted to pierce her mother with her ice claws.

She didn't even get to raise her hand more than an inch before her mother's eyes had hardened again. A single fist, coated in hard ice impacted her stomach. The pain was unbearable. Her mouth opened to scream but nothing came out.

"Think Mizore, think." With those final words she could only look on as her mother's wet face turned and she left. Her mother had turned her back to her…. Leaving her limp on the snowy ground. The cold wind whipping against her face. The lively nature around her seemed to mock her. The beautiful flowers and the pitter-patter of tiny animals scurrying around lost to her.

Her shaky mind lost its grip. Had her mother just abandoned her? Was she going to be alone? But then why did her mother cry? For her?

She could only lie there, her body too numb to even feel. She couldn't even feel her eyes watering. The only thing she could see, was the necklace still in her hand.

.

.

.

Reaching under her pillow she pulled out her diary. It had been months since then, while her eyes still quavered her hands no longer shook.

After all what doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?

Pulling out a piece of paper from the back of the diary she unfolded it. It was the first letter Naruto had sent her. It wasn't the first time she read it, it wouldn't be the last either.

"Hi Mizore-chan. How have you been? Happy I hope." Her heart ached and it left a bitter taste in her mouth.

"I've been training hard, learning new abilities and skills. Just recently Kazeshi thought me something very fun! Some kind of x-ray vision power, wait I think it was heat vision, argh!" when she had first read it she had blushed, her Naruto-kun with x-ray vision…

Now she only let a pained laugh go.

"Anyway I heard Kazshi-sofu was going to give your kaa-san some training scrolls. I'm going to see if I can find some and send you some later when I learn how to seal things. After all, with the way I think I would probably find some scrolls he missed."

No matter how much it made her heart ache. His letters always helped her rest.

"I guess, that's it for now. I'll write to you again soon! Bye Mizore-chan."

She had written some of her own letters to Naruto too in return. Feeling oddly calm now she pulled out another letter. The last one she had gotten.

"Hey Mizore-chan! I hope your training has been going well. Even if you find yourself stuck keep going okay?

Training has been very hard for me recently. I think Kazeshi is sadistic -" Naruto even though lost could still make her laugh.

"- at least Miyuki isn't too bad. But she makes me do all that boring things. I can understand meditation, but why all that other stuff like recognising plants and flowers. Knowing what a flower means isn't going to help me in a battle." Naruto could be so immature at times, the way she liked him.

"By the way, remember the gift you gave me? I want to say thanks again. I got a surprise for you too, I'll give it to you on your birthday too! It's in a few months right?

"I won't tell you what it is, but I'll tell you that it's something I hope you always have with you Mizore. Who knew that what Miyuki thought me about forging things would help? I lost count of the number of times I nearly freaked out only to realise that I had absorbed the heat. Luckily too, if I were just a normal human I would have died already." She had been worried then, despite what he had said. Still the thought that he would so such a thing for her had made her all warm on the inside then. Even now it did, but it was accompanied with an empty feeling.

"Well, it's goodbye for now. Thanks for the letters too Mizore. It's always nice to read them."

'Good bye' the word echoed in her head. She could feel it, she was about to cry again. But she wouldn't, squeezing her eyes shut she squashed it back down.

Her hand brushed her necklace again. Putting the things away she laid back down on her bed. She stared out the window, she had no goal, no purpose. Why was she here? Was it simply to help her race survive? She banished that cruel thought from her mind, besides she would have to do it sooner or later. It was only a matter of time. Weather she had found love by then or not, didn't matter.

.

.

.

She had laid there, how long she didn't know. The wind's howl echoed from somewhere deeper within the forest.

'Think Mizore. Think' her mother's words kept echoing in her mind. What was wrong with her? She kept trying to figure out, but she just couldn't. Her heart was cracked, that much she knew.

She didn't even notice that beady yellow eyes had started to emerge from the surroundings. The frail girl was merely their prey.

They slowly circled her but she couldn't bring herself to notice anything. Even as one of them approached her limp legs.

Her mind was still much too clouded. Even when it had sunk its jaws into her left calves she didn't so much as flinch. But when the leader of the pack had stopped in front of her. Something in her snapped. It had dared to step on her necklace, the necklace Naruto gave her.

Mizore let loose a single piercing cry as she released all her pent up sorrow. Her energy rolling off in waves around her. The few wolves that were too close had ended up tapped in solid blocks of ice. The one that had sunk its teeth into her had been frozen from the inside out.

She saw red, she didn't think, she couldn't think. Another one leapt at her, it had a piece of ice lodged in its heart and before it even realised it its heart had burst. A shower of red covered the snow around her.

The rest of the pack didn't run. Their fear had been replaced by rage. She had murdered another one of them in cold blood. No longer rooted to their spots they charged.

Throwing her left hand out it had its snout frozen shut. Bending down she avoided a set of jaws clamping around her neck. Sweeping her right leg another one of her attackers found itself knocked backwards into a tree. Its legs having been frozen then shattered.

Quickly stepping to her left she dodged another one of them who had been hoping to sever her leg. Pointing her ice claws at it she shot. Nothing was left it, thick ice shards had impaled it everywhere, and its body had been severed and grinded into mush.

She never saw the one she had ducked in the beginning launch itself at her. Her whole world paused as the jaws approached her face. 'Is this it?'

Suddenly another ice shard had appeared from the trees and lodged itself in her attacker's heart.

Preparing herself for whoever had shot that shard she had not expected her mother to emerge.

Mizore stood there like a statue. Frozen to the spot, ice claws pointed at her mother. Yet she couldn't move.

Why had her mother come back?

Tsurara inspected the clearing. It was full of dead wolves. Their crimson fluids had coated the area. Her daughter's kimono was soaked in it. She could see the confusion in her daughter's eyes.

Some though love had been _needed_, she knew that. But had she gone too far?

She was her mother, no matter who she would never leave her. It had pained her to watch her daughter lying lifelessly on the ground. She herself was on a tree some distance away.

She couldn't take it after a while, and had squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that everything would turn out all right.

That small moment had cost her daughter. When she opened her eyes again her heart had stopped. Her daughter was surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves. Yet her daughter was still as lifeless as she had left her.

She had dashed off then, knowing her daughter couldn't properly fight in her state. Her heart beating harder and harder with every step.

Now sadness had washed over her again. Her daughter's eyes, bearing down upon her, full of hurt. Her emotions were showing much too clearly on her face. It would hurt too much if she had to hit her daughter again.

"Sorry…" a weak faint whisper escaped her lips. Mizore lost it, she threw herself at her mother, letting all her emotions pour out, staining the front of her mother's kimono.

Tsurara held her little girl, much like she had done often in the past before they had met the Uzumakis. She could only let a few tears drop for her daughter.

.

.

.

"Argh…" Naruto forced his eyes open. Surveying his surroundings he noticed that the room had fallen apart. There was too much destruction everywhere. Doing a quick body check he had to wonder, in slight amazement how was not feeling the pain that he should have been feeling. In fact he only felt numbness from the parts of his body that he had injured himself in. Remembering that the debris that had speared him was made of wood, he covered his body in his flames. Luckily the reinforcement seals on the wood had broken when it had fallen on him.

As his flames subsided, he stood, his body free of any restraints. Except for the several holes in his body that were already rapidly stitching themselves together. Good thing his clothes were fire resistant.

Apparently the fact that the explosion had carried a lot of fiery energy helped. His body could easily absorb the residual energy around him. Within moments his body had healed.

The room he was in was trashed, for lack of a better term. Taking a look around himself he noticed that Kazeshi and Miyuki were both sprawled at one corner of the room, their limbs entangled.

Their position wasn't in the slightest bit provocative however. Stepping over pieces of debris he couldn't help be wonder what could have done all this. Nudging them gently Kazeshi removed himself from his wife's body, before pulling her up. Taking a quick survey they looked at each other. A familiar tingle was felt by both of them.

'I'll check the seals, you go take a look around.' Their unspoken message was carried through their telepathy.

Naruto was calmly waiting. He was not experienced enough or knowledgeable enough to tell what had happened.

His lessons from Miyuki seemed to be helped here. 'Don't act before you think. Especially in a situation such as this.' Somehow her efforts at teaching him had not been in vain.

He wasn't advanced enough in seals to help Kazeshi. So he decided to help Miyuki. It seemed she was taking stock of her surroundings. He wanted to take another approach. He extended his sensory abilities, while the chances of finding anyone else here was near to impossible, it wouldn't hurt to try.

'Nothing, Nothing, a person, no…' He had to pause here, someone else he was in the mansion? That made no sense. Activating his heat sense he scanned through the walls. He confirmed what he had sensed. A humanoid body was in a crater. From the outline he could make out she was feminine.

"Sofu, Sobo. There's someone there." He raised his right pointed finger at a part of the wall. To a normal person he would have seemed stupid, pointing his hand to a blank spot of the wall. The two with him however, heeded his words.

Naruto couldn't help but look on in slight concern and curiosity. After all it wasn't often that both Miyuki and Kazeshi display emotions other than their standard warm, happy welcoming ones. This time he could actually identify their emotions from their body language. Miyuki's lessons really had been effective. Miyuki and Kazeshi seemed to reel back in shock. Kazeshi lost his cool 'investigative' expression. Miyuki's breathing hitched slightly.

It was someone they knew, and that someone is really either really powerful or someone dear.

Miyuki's eyes breathing raised a bit more as she raised her left hand to wipe off a few tears. Kazeshi had already started walking towards the figure. His face torn between surprise and joy.

'Someone they know and have a good relationship with.'

Then he noticed it, the facial expression of Miyuki, was the same one she had when she had told Naruto he was part of their family.

'A family member, who has probably thought to be lost or been gone for a long time.'

.

.

.

Naruto had not expected this, period. Miyuki and Kazeshi had both left, probably to get to the woman. So he had tagged along. They had started to walk faster, slowly at first. Now he could barely keep up. Turning a corner he spotted a door that had been flung open.

Dashing toward it he turned his body around and went into the room.

Both Kazeshi and Miyuki embracing a nude woman who was in between them. They were all shedding tears. He was confused, _very_ confused. Distancing himself from them he stood by the wall and tried to keep his eyes off the woman. Who was undoubtedly beautiful; long red hair like most in the Uzumaki did except him. Her hair seemed to be smoother than Miyuki's.

He couldn't help but feel like he was out of place. Her body was wracked with sobs every time she breathed. Both Kazeshi and Miyuki themselves were not very composed but even he could see that her eyes were full of pain and alertness. It was almost like she believed she was in battle.

"Kaa-san…tou-san" those words floated toward him. His trained senses managing to pick it out. Thinking back he realised. Didn't Miyuki and Kazeshi have a daughter that had been injured?

He barely felt Miyuki gently nudging his shoulder. Slowly looking up he could see joy flooding Miyuki's eyes. Sparing a glance, it seemed Kazeshi was carrying the woman away, probably to somewhere to rest.

The question slipped before he even registered what he had said. "Is she my aunt?"

.

.

.

Kazeshi, Miyuki and Naruto were having lunch. Amazingly Naruto wasn't having any ramen today, though it wasn't too hard to imagine considering that Kazeshi had pretty much forced him to stop living off ramen alone.

Naruto looked out the window, straight into the blue sky. It was unnerving to see all the trees gone. The mansion had been repaired in record time, as Kazeshi had activated his repair seals, the beams had reattached themselves and the debris slid back into place.

Unfortunately phoenixes were beings of fire, not life. Kazeshi had created new life in the past but it was by using the nature energy that came from surrounding life via his seals. With only the four of them and no plants, his seals wouldn't work.

So they were left with two choices, move plants from another dimension here which would be impossible for a long time due to the backlash of the incident. So the only viable option left was to train Naruto to use water and earth with his human chakra. With enough control he would be able to blend the two elements together and create the wood style, which would let him grow plants with his chakra.

Both options would take time.

.

.

.

It worried Naruto to see the hesitation in Kazeshi. As far as he knew the man was always blunt, straight to the point, so why would he be unsure of something?

"Naruto."

Naruto jerked his head upwards, startled. Kazeshi's mouth was set in a grim line, his eyes seemed to look intently at his face.

"Do you remember how the dimensional door was open when the incident took place?" Naruto nodded timidly. Kazeshi was not usually one to beat around the bush, Naruto could see something flicker in the man's eyes.

"The energy from the accident leaked into the dimensional space." Naruto didn't understand what this really meant. However he could tell that pity was floating in the back of Kazeshi's eyes. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what it meant.

"The leaked energy would make dimensional travel through tunnels far too unstable. My seals will not work until the energy clears up" The air was suddenly too thick, Naruto's breathing became laboured.

"How long?" Naruto rasps out, his voice dry.

"At least 80 years." Kazeshi looked up, he couldn't bare too look at Naruto. Naruto's mouth hung slightly open, his hands felt clammy.

He did not realise he had started walking. The worried shouts of his grandfather didn't register to his ears.

.

.

.

His legs felt too heavy, almost like they had been lined with lead. He sat with his back against the wall, staring blankly at the wall in front of him.

Activating a seal under his left wrist a familiar snowflake dropped onto his palm. The reminder of his promise. Possibly the first promise he would ever break. His eyes wavered.

His hand reached for his drawer and pulled out a small stack of papers. They were letters from Mizore.

"Ohayo Naruto-kun. This is actually my first time writing a letter. I don't know what to tell you actually. I guess I'll just start from my training then. Haha has been teaching my new techniques and they were very hard actually. But every time ikeptthinkingofyou and I pulled through!" Unlike last time this time the warm feeling that fluttered in his stomach was accompanied with a sad tint.

"Last night tou-san gave up such a scare. He dressed up as a yeti and chased me through the house. It was quite funny later though as haha scolded him for messing with me." He could imagine that scene in his mind. Mizore running around scared, from a giant snowman. The edges of his mouth tugged up, in a pained smile.

"Well, I don't really know what else to write. So I guess I'll tell you more next time. Good luck on your training and studies and how was my writing Naruto-kun? Bye."

The paper fell from his hands. The room felt too cold. He drew in his legs and hugged them to his chest. His head rested sideways looking out his window.

Tonight the night sky didn't provide solace. He just felt empty.

.

.

.

Years ago, before Uzushigakure's destruction.

The sun was hot and weighed down on anything below it. The occasional wind rustling the leaves and swaying the trees that stood proudly in the forest.

Figures, garbed in black coveralls and grey vests darted through the forest, jumping from tree to tree. The trees shook when their feet landed and they jumped. Every one of them had a similar tanto strapped to their backs. Over it all they wore a black cloak that hid their body and any other weapons on them. On their faces they wore greyish masks which grotesquely resembled animals.

Seconds later they suddenly changed direction and swerved to their left, avoiding an enemy patrol. They continued onwards, avoiding other patrols. It was like an art, they weaved in and out of enemy formations almost beautifully.

Soon they were forced to stop as an old man accompanied with squads of ninja surrounded them from all sides. The old man was short, about the height of an eight year old. Yet their faces met, he had a rather large nose and he floated off the ground. The ninja surrounding the group all wore red garments with head protectors that had the insignia of the Village hidden in the rocks.

Nothing moved, for a few tense seconds. Even when a flock of birds flew overhead. Then recognition flashed in the old leader's face. His mouth set in a grim line as his hands tensed.

"Root. What does that piece of shit want?" While the old leader had waves of annoyance rolling off him his ninja had differing reactions. Fear and annoyance came from the older men. The younger ones became confused.

"You will not address Danzo-sama as such, trash." It seemed like a trained response from the apparent leader of the root squad. None of the ninja in black seemed to react, but under their cloaks their muscles were ready.

The rock ninja surrounding them all tensed, their leader was not known for his patience. Their fists clenched and their grips on their unique weapons tightened.

"You are Onoki of both scales, the third Tsuchikage of Iwagakure correct?" asked the very same man who had insulted just insulted him.

"Yes. I. Am." Onoki gritted his teeth and uttered the words out sharply. His small fists were clenched, suppressing the urge to attack. He lacked patience, but whenever Danzo and root was involved even he had to be wary.

"Danzo-sama wishes to give you vital information regarding your joint attack with Kumogakure and Kirigakure on Konohagakure's Uzushigakure." There was no change in his tone, it was almost as if he had practiced to speak like a recorder.

Every rock ninja bar their leader was immediately shocked. How had their plans already been discovered? Their attention was drawn back to the squad they surrounded as the squad's supposed leader removed his hand from his cloak.

Onoki had already been preparing his chakra, when the man produced a scroll instead of a weapon. But he would not let his guard down, Danzo had proven many times that he was a cunning man with no morals.

"Open it." Onoki's rough voice rang out. It wasn't uncommon for scrolls to be booby-trapped.

As the man's fingers slid under the edge of the scroll everyone shifted slightly. Onoki already had one of his defensive techniques ready.

When the paper slid open without accident, there was a collective sigh of relief. Placing the scroll back onto the ground they prepared to leave.

They were met with drawn swords pointed at them. The eye holes of their mask seemed to dig into their souls. The men who held their swords up shook as fear crawled up their spines.

"Let them go." The command from their leader was met with disbelief, but none the less they were grateful for a command. At least they had someone to control them with they couldn't do it themselves. Cautiously backing up their formed a gap for the squad to leave.

Within moments they were gone. Using his dust techniques he levitated the scroll toward himself. As he started to read the scroll his mouth dropped open from shock. Detailed instructions on how to get past the barriers that protected Uzushigakure, carefully handwritten by Danzo himself if his handwriting was any indication.

Konohagakure had just sold out their own ally. Once again the sounds of birds flying overhead filled their ears.

When they were fully out of sight, the flock of birds seemingly disappeared in small flames. Leaving behind one bird, who was flying furiously towards Uzushiogakure.

.

.

.

"Sigh…" Kushina walked aimlessly down the furbished corridors of her home. The fine yellow carpet and the beautiful blue tapestries did nothing to impress her. The paintings of the old however hung across the walls always drew her attention. They detailed her kind's co-existence with the humans on the island. From the first time they had come, a painting of a group of humans surrounded by birds of fire, to their current generation, a picture of her family - her father Kazeshi Uzumaki, her mother Miyuki Uzumaki, her older sister, Mito Uzumkai, her younger sister Hitomi Uzumaki and finally her.

She chuckled as she remembered just how many tries it had taken to get that picture.

Looking out the magnificent window she could see her people. Walking and going about their business. They guards stationed the walls working diligently especially in such times of war. Only one word could encompass what she was seeing – beautiful.

"Kushina!" turning around to face the person that had broken her out of her musings she barely caught her sister as she morphed out of her bird-form and collided with her. She looked panicked, she was sputtering nonsense. Clamping her hand over her sister's mouth she looked her sister dead in the eyes as she rubbed her other hand gently on her sister's back.

Slowly Hitomi's breathing slowed. Her hands steadied but her eyes were still scared. Wetting her mouth, dry from her panic and hurried flying she spoke again.

"We're going to be attacked! By Iwagakure, Kumogakure and Kirigakure." Kushina hitched an eyebrow.

"How do you." She was cut off as a loud explosion caught their attention. Outside of their window they saw that a section of the village walls had been blown apart. Enemy ninja bearing the insignia of the three mentioned villages were flooding into the village. She could hear it from here. The screams and cries as her people were slaughtered. Rage filled her veins, her grip on her sister tightened.

"Hitomi, kaa-san and tou-san left this morning for our old home. We're the only ones here" Clenching her fist as the destruction filled her eyes she continued in a lower tone.

"Go to the dimensional room, get kaa-san and tou-san. I'll go see if I can reduce the damage to our people." Hitomi hesitated, her eyes were worried. Kushina's face had already hardened, she had already unsealed her favourite sword. A final glance at her gave her just enough will to do what she was told.

Her legs carried her as fast as they could, her face was sweaty and her hair stuck to her skin. Their parents were very strong, strong enough to take down whole villages on their own, but she and her sisters weren't as powerful.

Suddenly she found herself leaving the safety of the ground as another explosion pushed her off her feet. Ignoring the ringing in her ears, she quickly go back onto her feet. A group of Kiri's ANBU surrounded her. From the look of things they had been specifically assigned to take her and her family out. If only her parents were here.

.

.

.

Outside the appearance of one of the royal family had greatly improved their morale. Kushina had quickly organised the troops and they had manage to slow the invasion to a halt. She herself was on the front lines, cutting down enemies left and right.

She swung her right arm outwards, he sword catching an enemy ninja by surprise. His head was off his body within moments. Bending her top to the left she avoided a deadly blow from the front. Lashing out with her right leg the ninja soon found himself missing an arm.

A shower of blood rained upon her as she slaughtered enemy after enemy, it was a macabre painting of gore as the life fluid of her enemies coated the ground.

She took another quick survey. The enemy kept coming, there were too many of her own around her. If she transformed now her lack of control would probably kill everyone within a hundred meters.

"Tsk." It was getting harder, her limbs were getting heavy. Opening her mouth she took in large breath, when she released it a stream of hot yellow flames flew out, melting anyone directly caught, they wouldn't even get the chance to scream. Taking the opportunity she created she dashed deep into enemy lines.

With a release of hot fiery energy she transformed. The enemy ninja that were near here had become noting but vapour around her. Kushina wrinkled her nose in disgust at the smell. It wasn't a full transformation, she couldn't pull that off yet. Her mortal body still existed within the hot yellow flames which surrounded her. A true transformation would have turned her into purely fire.

Taking off into the sky she flared her flames, like a beacon in the air. The morale of her men sky rocketed as they recognised the true form of their royal family, shown only during special events which were so rare only a few generations could ever hope to see it.

However the older generation, which had seen another such transformation before couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong. The phoenix was different somehow.

Then they realised it. The form of the phoenix high above was shaped around a person. They could make out the long crimson hair that shone brightly on the person. Normal Uzumaki had pale red hair. So the person within the phoenix was from the royal family, for only they had such a shade of hair. But neither was the person their fearless ruler, it was not Kazeshi Uzumaki.

Kushina raised her hands at the enemy ships, and within moments a bloody slaughter had commenced. Streams and daggers of fire shot out from her hands, burning enemy forces outside the walls. The enemy boats, most of which bore Kiri's insignia quickly caught fire. The screams of thousands burning in the fire echoed all around them.

Even the forces of Uzushigakure felt a shiver up their spines as the agony of their enemy reached them. They looked on at the sheer cruelty displayed. Yet it was also so beautiful. Seeing it for themselves did not compare to hearing of it in legends.

However a faint dust prism suddenly covering their phoenix quickly alarmed them. Broken out of their stupor they launched themselves back to their enemy.

Kushina quickly sent a wave of her energy out all around her before trying using as much speed and power as she could to turn herself into a human bullet.

When she hit the wall her youkai and the energy within the dust started to battle. Within seconds she made it out, just as whatever was in the prism was atomised.

A searing pain suddenly shot from her foot, gritting her teeth she looked down. Her left foot, to just above the ankle had been caught in the prism. Walking was out of the question now. Swerving to her right she just barely dodged a jet of water.

Refocusing her attention she saw Onoki, the thirds Tsuchikage floating below her, beside him a Kirigakure ninja was focusing another blast of water.

Kushina launched a pair of fire balls at them. At the last second both of them scattered. One in front of her the other behind her. Another prism was suddenly launched at her from Onoki, shooting herself upwards the prism followed. Cutting through anything else in its way, buildings, enemy and allies alike. In a burst of speed she dodged another blast of water. Using her superior speed she was quickly behind the kiri ninja.

To her shock, as she had believed the previous time to be an accident, Onoki extended his prism through the kiri ninja in a bid to get her. Slightly startled she barely got away in time, losing her left arm at the elbow.

She wanted to shout that he was a monster and call him all sorts of other murderous words but she bit her tongue and kept them in. It wouldn't do for her to lose her cool in the midst of a battle.

Just as she locked her gaze on Onoki a fist coated in lightning suddenly impacted with the back of her head on her defenceless left side. Kushina was sent crashing down to the ground.

The cold hard ground embraced her, breaking a few of her ribs and fracturing her good leg. Turning herself around with her only good limb left the she could see Onoki floating far above her, with a damnable smirk on his face.

Kushina pushed herself shakily onto her right leg. She tried to get back up only for a wave of water to suddenly rush over her. She couldn't stand against it.

She was carried away by the waves, her flames having been extinguished in the process. Squinting despite the water she barely made out the ground below her disappearing. Within seconds the water went away. Kushina roughly coughed up water she had taken in, her right hand laid crushed above her, having been stuck to the ground by a large piece of debris which had fallen onto her.

She could hear the dying screams of her clansmen around her. They cried for their fallen family, for the destruction of their home. Their barrier seals had no effect. Spitting up some salt water she tried to relight her flames. A few sparks lit around her.

'Damn, I don't have enough energy left.' She dropped her head onto the cold muddy ground. The liquid around her had started to turn pink. It wouldn't be long before she was utterly soaked in the blood of her clansmen.

With her fading eyes the last thing she saw was a large rectangular piece of rock falling toward her. A single tear escaped her closed eyes, it was for her clansmen.

She forcefully compressed all her remaining youkai, and in a single second let it out. The ground around her rippled, the rock falling onto her started to disintegrate. Everything and anything within half a kilometre of her had been either melted or vaporised.

Except, the rock above her hadn't been fully vaporised, Onoki was a very paranoid person. She didn't feel anything when the rock crushed her body, she had already fallen into the cold embrace of unconsciousness.

.

.

.

Hitomi heated her body to levels that could melt iron. Around her the water started to bubble. Pulsing her fire around her a dome of air formed around her. She had a second to breathe in the air before the water came flooding back. Taking in as much as she could she was once again submerged in water. Four Kiri ANBU raced toward her, using chakra to propel themselves and breathers to breathe underwater. For more Kiri ANBU stayed in the back, constantly reinforcing the chakra in the water making sure the whole corridor would be flooded. Try as she might Hitomi couldn't fight underwater. She was still too untrained and too inexperienced. She lacked both the skill and the power. Building up as much energy as she could, she prepared to release it in one devastating burst.

Just as she released it she felt a set of jaws clamp down on her torso. Her focus had been disrupted, her released of energy ended up as nothing but a mere bubbling of the water around her.

Her right side hit the wall her head banging against the wall rather hardly. The water shark was still attached to the left of her torso, immobilising one of her hands in the process.

Her legs had gone first, her mouth opened in a garbled scream as red bathed the water around her. The melted iron dripped onto her legs. The next to go was a part of her torso and her left arm. The shark's jaws crushed down on her body. Red had filled her vision. Her own eyes started to turn red, blood capillaries bursting within her eyes spilled coloured her eyes blood red.

A tanto entered her field of vision, it was approaching her neck. Just as the cold blade touched her soft skin she spit out a fire. A pure white flame rocketed out and away from her body. Leaving a trail of liquid vapour.

The Kiri ANBU dodged the missile and by the next second that had Hitomi's head.

They didn't noticed that the flame missile had not extinguished. Burning its way through the walls of the castle it shot off in the direction of her parents. It streaked across the sky, leaving a fiery trial in its wake.

.

.

.

"Naruto?" looking up tiredly he saw what was probably the last person he wanted to see right now. Kazeshi had already explained it to him, how the seals had for seemingly no reason. How her rebirth had leaked all that power. However he couldn't stop himself, a part of him hated his aunt as she would be the reason he would break his promise to Mizore. 'Yet is that really the only reason I'd be upset? – just because of a promise?'

Hitomi had a smile etched on her face, it only made the rage in him grow hotter. Trying to stay neutral he sought to distract himself. So he resorted to analysing Hitomi's appearance.

'Her hair is messy, her robe is out of place, there is dust all over her. She smells of cherry and, paper?'

Hitomi's eyes had a tinge of guilt as she started. "Tou-san told me what happened."

'So why was she here then?' he kept his eyes on her face I general. Never focusing in on any part.

'He doesn't even seem made, just really – lost…' trying not to let her guilt take over her she moved her hand in front of her, in her hand was a scroll. "I also heard how you're part human, so you can use pure chakra too. Then I remembered that our human clansmen –" her voice broke. Thinking of her clansmen brought a fresh wave of pain.

Closing her eyes she sucked in a large amount of air, before releasing it. "They had made a technique that allowed a person to create clones of themselves which would be able to transfer memory back to the original." Naruto didn't even think about it. He knew it wasn't her fault, but if this was her way of trying to say sorry for everything, it was a piss poor apology.

Unknowingly his eyes hardened and his neutral gaze started to bear down on his aunt. Hitomi felt like someone had put a mountain on her shoulders. "Our human clansmen didn't use the technique as the memory backlash carried the risk of damaging their minds. We phoenixes couldn't learn despite our stronger minds because the technique required pure chakra something which we don't have. I'm sure Kazeshi"

Naruto cut her off, as his eyes quavered slightly. "said that seals in theory could do anything."

Naruto's eyes dropped onto the scroll she held. Hitomi wasn't prepared to see Naruto start to cry in front of her.

Embracing Naruto's shaking body she held both her arms around him. Naruto grabbed onto her and shed his tears into her, muffling his cries into her.

When he had finally stopped shaking she released him from her comforting hug. She was momentarily stunned at the look in Naruto's eyes. Determination, joy and hope danced in his eyes. His mouth parted roughly. His chapped lips wet by his moist tongue.

"Th…thank you." His voice was dry and hoarse, but the thick emotion within was still carried through.

.

.

.

The next day signalled the start of a few hectic years for Kazeshi as he would find himself being dragged off in one direction by Naruto only to be dragged off in another by another Naruto.

His wife wasn't much better off. While her teaching revolved around the mind and other non-battle related topics she was still a seal master.

Hitomi didn't bother suppressing another giggle as her father shot her a death glare as he was dragged off once more by another Naruto. It was already amazing that she somehow still managed to train with her parents, although she made sure to always downplay her sealing abilities.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

A/N) I won't really say much in regards to my story's plots. Wouldn't want to spoil anything now would I?


	7. Chapter 7 Overcome

A/N)

Disclaimer: I hereby claim that I the author of the fanfic below do not in any shape or form own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, Rosario + Vampire and Rosario + Vampire capu2. However the ideas and storyline are mine.

On a side note I referenced and implied some things that relate to chemistry and physics. If you do not know anything about chemistry on the topic of chemical bonding and atomic structure I've included a small summary below. If you do not know anything about physics on to topic of light waves I've included a small summary below.

Read it if you want, if not go ahead. You do not need to know the information below to understand the story, I'm just merely providing information if you wish to understand how some things also occur in real life.

Chemistry: Everything around us is made of tiny atoms which are made of protons, neutrons and electrons. Elements are pure substances made of only one type of atom. Compounds are substances made of one or more elements. Ions are atoms that have a net charge due to losing or gaining electrons. Air is a mixture which contains elements and compounds. Some air molecules are held together by forces and bonds. With enough energy these bonds can break and the substance will undergo a chemical reaction. In fact when air is super-heated it is ionised as there is enough energy to overcome some of its bonds.

Physics: Different substances can have different optical densities (the speed at which light waves travels in it) which leads to distortion. For example, water and glass.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

**Chapter 7: Overcome**

"Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them."  
― Leo Tolstoy

.

.

.

A loud cry of frustration emerged from Naruto as he succumbed. Twisting his body he slammed his fists into the tree beside him. It gave way and broke apart much too easily for his satisfaction. Without a hint of effort his chakra leaked out into the ground, within moments a new tree took the old one's spot. Hardening the wood with wood chakra he continued venting his frustration on the tree.

'Bang!'

'Bang!'

'Bang!'

The skin on his fists started to cut, he kept on pounding. Wooden splinters had gotten stuck in his fists, he kept punching. Blood dripped off his fists, he went on still.

"ARGH!" putting all his pent up frustration into his last punch his hand became entrenched in the tree. His face was flushed, his hair had fallen onto his face. His eyes had regained their usual calm cool. Ignoring the sticky sensation of his clothes he slowed his breathing. Tensing his muscles he pulled, his hand wouldn't come lose. Trying again with more effort his legs slid forward – he didn't notice his leg smudging a part of his seal.

"Sigh…" sending chakra to his feet he stuck himself in place. Flooding his muscles with chakra he pulled. His hand was ripped out of the tree, bloodied and full of splinters.

Suddenly his eyes rolled backwards and he lost connection with the conscious world. A part of his mind seemingly floated off.

.

.

.

A loud feminine scream, full of rage and sorrow, filled the air.

'He doesn't trust me either.'

Unleashing her monster form she waved, a localised blizzard formed holding back the boy.

"Listen Mizore-san, it's fine, no one will hold it against you. Just apologise to those boys and Kotsubo-sensei." Tsukune reached out for her with one hand, the other shielding his eyes.

Mizore raised her clawed hands, and shot several ice shards at the boy. His eyes widened in shock, but a sudden black shape suddenly swooped down and pulled him into the air.

Mizore's eyes narrowed, her rage boiled. That blue haired succubus was nothing but a man stealing whore Mizore thought.

Another feminine cry of the boy's name reached her ears despite the snow and wind blowing furiously around her. 'Moka, she's another one! Where are all these sluts coming from!?'

The blue haired succubus, Kurumu, gently dropped the Tsukune onto his feet. The succubus with her wings out stood on his left, speedily checking him for any wounds. Within seconds Moka, with her long pink hair flowing behind her, was on Tsukune's right. The boy's attention had switched rather quickly from the purple haired snow monster to the two girls who were rather passionately _caring _for him.

He failed to notice how the blush on his face seemed to only add oil to the fire. A screeching sound soon filled the air, immediately catching the trio's attention. Dodging the hail of ice shards they refocused on their enemy. After all, it was three on one wasn't it?

With a mighty flap of her leathery wings Kurumu sped off toward the snow monster. Pushing through the cold winds that bit her skin she swung her long claws at the girl. Leaving several superficial wounds on the girl she broke the snow-onna out of her rage filled stupor.

In that moment the snow storm dropped. Mizore found herself flying back towards the edge of the cliff as a lunge from Kurumu impacted her stomach.

Weakly lifting up her head with her hair covering her face she saw how Moka cared for Tsukune; worrying for every single thing. The way Kurumu would shower the boy with her affections.

'Am I meant to never have friends?' Past memories resurfaced, forcing their way through all her attempts to bury them into oblivion.

All the happy moments in life she had ever had flashed before her raging eyes. Almost everyone involved a blonde she would probably never meet again.

Life was cruel. A wave of despair washed over her as her mind seemed to detach from her body. Witnessing her own body move without her will, an emotion she had been narrowly avoiding for years finally caught her. Everything around her blurred, she wasn't even aware she had formed ice clones of herself. Her copies were as cold as her, while they lacked souls their mirroring of her emotions made up for it.

She could faintly make out the sounds of Kurumu's shouting as her horde of clones descended upon them. She felt numb – weightless, like she was floating in a sea of nothing. Yet at the same time her heart was not with her, like a chain refusing to let her go. Mizore stared into nothingness.

Her world suddenly lit up in colours and sounds. The chirping of birds overhead, the swishing of water and the rustling of leaves reached her ears. Beautiful green plants and clear blue skies lit up her world. The focus of it all a boy who stood in the middle. He had blonde hair with red streaks running through it. He was wearing clothes that seemed ordinary but she could feel something off about them. His warm smile seemed to reignite her world as she gazed longingly, unconsciously reaching out to him.

His face was full of relief, his features were rugged but soft. His hand reached for hers. Their eyes never breaking contact. Her lips parted slightly, "Naruto?" she mumbled softly despite her sucker. Their hands were mere centimetres apart.

As she closed her grip she suddenly found herself back in the real world. A few tears still rolling down her cheeks – hadn't she promised never to cry again?

"Naruto…" her faint whisper was lost, muffled by the cawing of a crow and the raging waves beneath her.

"Mizore!" Tsukune shouted, his hand connected to hers.

'Tsukune?' Mizore added mentally.

'Is Naruto telling me to forget him? To go for what's in front of me? – Tsukune…'

Above him she could make out her own clones approaching them. Below her the violent waves seemed desperate to have her. Taking a moment to calm herself she focused, her clones suddenly lost their ice claws. They seemed to revert back to merely dolls as their storming eyes suddenly drained of emotion. Her dolls became lifeless without her emotions pulling their strings. She could feel a crossed shape piece of metal in her palm that was connected to Tsukune's.

Within seconds a wave of unbridled youkai suddenly splashed over them and her dolls shattered into ice. Suddenly she found herself being flung upwards as a feminine arm lifted Tsukune.

As her vision cleared a woman with shapely curves and long white hair seemed to be staring at her in boredom. A familiar black chocker was around her neck but it was missing a familiar rosary.

Mizore's bored gaze met hers. One didn't seem to care, the other couldn't be more bothered.

"So you're calling me out for such simple things now?" the white woman, Moka with her powers released and her other personality questioned. The sight of Tsukune apologising profusely didn't register to her. Although it did tug at her heart slightly.

"I'm not going to thank you." Mizore stated as she consciously relaxed her hands. She couldn't react to the kick that suddenly forced the air out of her lungs and threw her to the ground.

Mizore lay on the ground nursing her stomach with a hands in a fetal position. Her other hand went to her necklace for comfort, to feel only the circular one her mother had given her. Her mother had said it was just a gift – but she knew what her mother had really meant.

'You have to move on Mizore.' She wished she had _that_ necklace with her then.

The last things she saw with her barely open eyes was Tsukune running after her with a concerned look on his face.

'Am I supposed to feel happy Naruto?' Mizore thought before she lost consciousness.

.

.

.

'That felt real.' Naruto regained his consciousness. Getting back onto his feet he checked his body for any irregularities.

However something else caught his eye, in his peripheral he noticed the seal he had drawn was glowing. Immediately turning to look at his seal better, shock filled his system. It was working, despite having lost part of its original function, it was holding up. Examining the cause with wide eyes and shaky hands he could feel happiness seep into him. Nature chakra had seeped into the seal, using his body as a conduit, and it was powering the seal.

The seal was made to look for storages of his energy – like the one he had put into the necklace he had given Mizore. Instead it had searched for traces of his chakra on living beings.

The hope in his eyes renewed, the edges of his lips tugged upwards.

.

.

.

Shock and pride filled Kazeshi's mind as he stared at the intricate work laid out before him. The masterpiece had taken the form of an oval as it covered a huge clearing in front of him. The trees around him rustled and swayed to an invisible wind. What really stood out were the three trees that stood within clearly marked out circles. Their roots crawled and criss-crossed over one another in an intricate puzzle. Their crowns shaded the whole masterpiece as they towered, far taller than any other tree within the vicinity. Their trunks were thick and strong, a few meters in diameter. The only odd thing were the green lines that ran down the trunks of the trees toward the roots than to the seal they stood in. The lines were like pathways that pulsed with energy. The outline of the seal glowed a faint green. Nearer the centre a circle of purple surrounded a wooden door. Purple and green lines were sprawled all over the door, they pulsed ever so often – almost like they were alive.

The tell-tale 'poofs' of his grandson's clones dispersing were heard as the clones finished drawing out the last of the seal.

Five years his grandson's clones had harassed him and his wife for their guidance in seals. They barely had time to actually teach Naruto and their daughter other things.

He had harassed them hourly at first, before it slowly dropped to daily by the time the first year had been over. They would train Hitomi and Naruto, with a group of his shadow clones that allowed him to learn at godly speeds. Every once in a while more clones of Naruto would show up from where ever they had been practicing seals to drag either he or Miyuki off.

By the time it got to the second year it was once every few days.

Recently it had went to once a month. So it tugged on his mind when Naruto hadn't come to either him or Miyuki for a few months now.

From what he could see, it looked like the five years of harassment hadn't been for nothing.

"Heck, if he actually pulls this off, then this'd be one thing he's better than me in." Kazeshi admitted under his breath. Beside him Miyuki had an equally stunned reaction as she tried to decipher the seals. Both their jaws were hanging rather limply open as the sheer thought of what was about to happen hit them.

Even the original seal he himself used for dimensional travel was nothing compared to his, while there were a few traces of his seal scattered in the seal even he was baffled.

"Kaa-san, Tou-san, where..ar.." Hitomi joined them, her sentence never finished as her eyes widened. She wasn't as experienced in seals as her parents that much was true, but she could still pick out a few things here and there.

"Kazeshi-sofo, Miyuki-sobo, Hitomi-obachan!" the three turned their heads to see Naruto walking towards them, with a kind of joy in his eyes that Kazeshi and Miyuki hadn't seen in five years. Naruto seemed refreshed; brimming with energy. He didn't even seem tired in the least.

"Naruto, is this what I think it is?" Kazeshi hesitantly questioned, as he struggled to decipher more of the seal that was on the ground.

"Yep!" Naruto turned back to look at the seal, at is pulsed with life energy. Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder, moving his head left he was met with the gaze of a _motherly_ Miyuki.

"Did you remember to check the limiters on the power output?"

"Yes." Naruto answered, crisply and clearly.

"Did you remember to check the integrity of the power storages?"

"Yes…" Naruto drawled the answer slightly.

"How about safeguards?"

"Yes...…" Miyuki's analytical gaze was starting to affect him.

"What about emergency precautions?"

"Er…ah…" Miyuki's eyes glowed for a brief second as Naruto broke out in cold sweat.

"The..there are barrier seals in place in case something goes wrong, drain seals in case there is on overload and an anti-personnel seal just in case."

Miyuki's gaze bore deeper for a second, Naruto suppressed the urge to wipe off his sweat with shaky hands.

Then it was all over, like Miyuki hadn't just dug her way into his soul with her motherly instincts – ahem_, nagging. _Naruto could just faintly make out the laughter of Kazeshi in the background.

Steeling his body he put his game face on.

"My seal will create a tunnel through dimensions much like sofu's. However it can also link to multiple dimensions simultaneously." Kazeshi's eyes bulged as he stopped his deciphering of the seal to stare at Naruto. Inflating Naruto's pride in the progress.

"The main difference however is that there will be an outer tunnel, made of nature energy that coats the inner tunnel. I found out a few months ago while experimenting on nature energy that it is capable of co-flowing with other forms of energy." Kazeshi and Miyuki were both stunned, to harness and use nature energy with seals was something that they had deemed impossible centuries ago. It was simply too strong to bend to a seal's direction.

"How di-"

Naruto was a step ahead of them. "Nature energy is too strong for seals to bend its flow towards them. So I grew those three trees with my mokuton (wood) style. Their roots and trunks interlinked with the collector seals. That way the nature energy flows directly into them."

Hitomi was hopelessly lost at this point, her head darted back to and fro her parents and her nephew. Her head was getting slightly dizzy. Just before swirls started to appear in her eyes Miyuki took pity on the poor girl.

"Basically, Naruto's seal will create a dimensional tunnel and protect it with an outer layer of nature energy to prevent disruptions from other energy waves, in this case your leaked energy." Steadying her head with her hands she gave Miyuki a weak smile.

"I'm going to go with my hunch and say that you already prepared to leave." Kazeshi stated as he took in Naruto's appearance.

Naruto had a thigh pouch on both legs over dark blue pants that were just slightly bigger than his legs which reached down to his ankles. He wore a grey long sleeve shirt with blood red rims on top of which he wore a vest with various camouflaged compartments.

Naruto's grin said it all.

"So where will the tunnel lead?" Miyuki questioned.

Naruto tapped his chin with his right index finger. "Since I don't have any marked locations, I'm just going to make it retrace the latest tunnel that opened. 'Straight to Mizore's home.' He added in his mind as he thought of meeting the purple haired girl. 'I hope she's alright.'

Sending out tendrils of his energy to specific locations on the seal he started his masterpiece.

The green lines on the three trees seemed to pulse even brighter. The energy contained within them travelled throughout the seal, spreading itself in the fashion the seals guided them in. The sight itself was breath-taking. Parts of the seal seemed to light up in unfathomable patterns.

A walkway made of energy started to form, from the edge of the seal in front of the family toward the door.

'Show-off.' Kazeshi thought.

While Naruto's ego was indeed inflating, the thought of meeting the shirayukis overwhelmed anything else. More specifically his thoughts of a purple haired girl who had a sucker in her smiling mouth. Her soft looking lips and her pale yet exotic skin. It filled his heart with an indescribably joy; she was but a few moments away.

.

.

.

Tsukune Aono, just the average school teenager. Funny thing was, where he was he would be the odd one out. Everyone around him was a monster, both the teachers and the students. Due to an unfortunate or fortunate accident he had ended up going to a secret monster school that killed any humans who discovered them.

Like the average person he was, he had freaked out upon discovering what kind of school he was in when he first attended a few months ago. Going into a state of shock where his heart raced and adrenaline flooded his body. Making his actions rash and more tiring. Luckily he had already made a friend by then, by the name of Ayashika Moka.

Moka was a vampire, with a powerful seal that sealed her powers and her vampiric personality. Tsukune had managed to get run over by her on her bike on their first day to school.

Dazed and dizzy she had let her vampiric instincts take over for a second. Thrusting herself forward she had sank her fangs into Tsukune's neck and instantly had become addicted to his _human-like_ blood.

She had been the reason why Tsukune Aono had not left the school, she was still a part of the reason why he had not left the school.

.

.

.

Another typical day Tsurara thought. Her daughter as off at Youkai Gakuen and her husband was busy at work. The resort she owned had fallen into hard times recently.

Then her train or though was interrupted and it slipped from her fingers, her cup full of tea shattered upon hitting the cold ground. She found herself questioning her sanity as in the exact same place _it_ had been, a dark green frame appeared. A greyish-brown door appeared within it. Taking a tentative step towards it she stared with wide dilated eyes as the door creaked open.

A familiar tanned hand came into view. As the door opened further her body shook. Familiar faces came into view. "N..Naruto?" a smile answered her question.

Another familiar voice rang out. "Don't forgot about me or Miyuki either Tsurara." It was the same playful voice she hadn't heard in five years.

.

.

.

Mikogami Tenmei, the headmaster of Youkai Gakuen, was currently sitting in his office behind his desk. Normally he would be doing his ever-growing paperwork which threatened to drown him every single day of his existence. Even worse was that he was currently having a less than friendly discussion with Shizuka Nekonome, a member of the faculty of the school.

Shizuka was furiously pointing at a commotion outside his room window, which he was continuously refusing. She grew paler and paler as the events outside progressed, which oddly enough was a huge gathering of students at a stake with a boy bound to it. It was almost as if they weren't in school and rather at some sort execution.

"If we don't do something he really is going to die!" Shizuka almost screamed it out.

The headmaster responded tiredly, never stopping his work. "If he is to die today, then so be it. If not then he will not die." Shizuka could only stare on in disbelief.

.

.

.

"Students of Youkai Gakuen[1]. Today we shall witness the death of one of our true enemy! Tsukune Aono, is a human!" Keito, a member of the Public Safety Commission of the school announced to the gathered crowd of students. Instantly murmurs started from the crowd, some in outrage others in disbelief. Their school, Youkai Academy, was supposed to be protected by a special barrier which should have made it impossible for humans to get in.

"This filth will be executed in two hours at noon." Keito couldn't help but smirk as she saw the student body start to support Kuyou. She could already feel her master full of pride beaming at her while congratulating her for a job well done. Sparing a look at the boy trapped to the stake the boy's plight only made her that much more excited.

Looking over the faces he had started to accept, to see their faces twisted with hatred and disbelief. It scared him, was he going to die here all alone?

'Maybe Gin-sempai was right…'

.

.

.

Tsukune Aono and his friends were in the newspaper club room discussing a rather taboo subject in the school.

"The Public Safety Commission is corrupt! We have to tell the students the truth!" Tsukune Aono shouted in the name of justice, albeit a bit naively.

"No, don't be a fool. As your club president I will not let you." Gin aka Ginei Morioka, resident werewolf placed his foot down.

Before anyone else could speak a word the club room door opened.

As every head turned to the door one face paled immediately upon recognition of the intruders. Gin eye's widened in fear as he took a step back. This did not go unnoticed.

"I see you remember me Ginei." Spoke Kuyou, the chief of the Public Safety Commission.

"I have recently gotten reports on all of you and I have to say, I am greatly displeased, not only are you'll running an illegal club but now you are all also disobeying a direct order from the Public Safety commission." Kuyou tsked.

"We're only preaching the trut." Tsukune was cut off as Gin appeared behind him with a hand clamped over his mouth.

"Sorry Kuyou-sama, you see I had already told them to stop but they wouldn't listen." Gin pleaded.

Kuyou's face took on a crueller shade. "Ahh that explains it. However I am here on different business. Tsukune Aono is under arrest under suspicions that he is a human."

Several shouts of outrage came from the other girls in the room.

"That's not possible!" Yukari, a young witch stated.

"Don't spew nonsense!" Kurumu shouted as she set her fiery eyes on Kuyou.

"Hmm?" the snow woman merely questioned despite the widening of her eyes.

Yet what really got to Tsukune was Moka's worried eyes.

Kuyou's smirk almost stretched across the entire stretch of his face as he eyed the scene playing out. "The rest of you here are also to come with us for questioning."

As his subordinates stepped forward to escort his suspects to his headquarters he turned his back as he couldn't help but let some of his twisted excitement fill his eyes.

.

.

.

"You know, of all the monsters I've ever had the joy of _interrogating_ I must admit that your species hasn't been one of them." Kuyou stated as he looked at the bound girl.

"The fact that you're the silent type only makes this even sweeter." Mizore merely looked into his eyes apathetically.

Kuyou flexed his arm and immediately fires came to life, surrounding them. "I'll ask again. Is Tsukune Aono a human?" Without her sucker the heat seemed to bear down on her. Threatening to burn her into nothing but ashes.

"No." she did not say more than that – it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. A bright blue flame birthed from Kuyou's upturned palm, the shadows it made on his face seemed to darken all the wrong features. Her clam demeanour wasn't broken even when the flame was mere centimetres from her face. Yet she could already feel her body succumbing to the heat. Her world was getting unfocused. The shadows danced behind the kitsune demon, his pointed ears reach the ceiling and the two dark spots on his head seemed highlight the dark and calm emotion within his eyes.

Then the flame suddenly died out, lifting her eyes up, the smirk on Kuyou's face did nothing to appease the fear bubbling up from deep within her. Images flashed through her mind – her mother and her mother were with her in the earlier parts of her life. Happy moments she had shared with Tsukune and his gang. The war of affections she had had with Moka, Yukari and Kurumu for Tsukune's heart. However when the images of a certain blonde friend seemed to linger longer than the rest her heart throbbed.

A scream was ripped out of her throat when searing hot pain suddenly filled her mind. The smell of burnt flesh – her flesh filled her nose. She thrashed about but her bonds held her tight. Two metal cuffs on each hand held her hands to the armrests of the chair. Two metal cuffs on each leg held her legs to the front legs of the chair and several lengths of rope held her back tightly to the chair.

Kuyou dragged his finger agonisingly slowly down her left forearm, tracing patterns on his whims. A line of red flesh followed his finger as blood started to ooze out from parts of her burnt flesh. He went in circles, squares, around her arm and back up.

Taking a step back he admired his fifteen minute art work. Her forearm was burnt badly, exposed parts of her flesh where the skin had burnt off pulsed and twitched.

A twisted glee filled him as he took a metal pin out his pocket and heated it up to the point where it gave off a nice red glow. Soaking in the fear his victim gave off seemed to make him feel alive as she slightly trembled at the sight of the pin he held above her right forearm.

Another scream was ripped out of her as he started to draw fine patterns on her arm with the tip of his pin. A sob that was emerging from her got stuck in her throat as he suddenly pushed the needle in a centimetre and continued drawing patterns. Her flesh giving way easily as it burned and wrinkled.

When he was done with her hand her hand was covered in crude grids.

Let it be known that Kuyou also had a _funny_ sense of humour. "Ever heard of a game call tic-tac-toe?"

.

.

.

His steps had an extra bounce in them as he walked. Despite the 'near-death' experience he had just experienced at the hand of Tsurara he was fine.

Thinking back he shivered. She had been shocked at first, but then somehow within minutes anger had filled her person as she looked at them barely controlling her actions.

_"Do you know what Mizore had…has been going through?" _the question had seemed aimed at him more than anyone else.

It had caught him off guard. He hadn't thought about that, being fully fixated on creating a stable dimensional tunnel for the past few years.

Guilt had weighed down on him as he imagine just what Mizore had probably gone through when the last thing she had seen was him being impaled and struck down by debris.

Luckily his grandmother once again showed her wisdom. She had already known what would have happened as she had already prepared to comfort him. A reassuring hand on his shoulder as her eyes conveyed her message had been enough.

His grandparents knew Tsurara's pain. The pain of watching your children suffer. They had let Tsurara vent all her frustrations as her emotions poured out; her tears falling down her cheeks.

The sixteen year old boy stopped midway through his step, raising one of his hands up he felt the snowflake that dangled off his neck in the simple necklace he had made. Blurred images of something that he felt he should know flashed by him.

Naruto shook his head and brushed off the feeling, getting back to his original task.

'So the bus driver comes when I call for him here?' twisting his head left and right he rechecked his location. Noting the hidden pumpkin behind a bush and a crude pole that stood beside it he was pretty sure he was in the right place.

Placing his hand on the pole he channelled some of his youkai into the pole. Nothing happened. Looking around nothing changed. The leaves of the trees were swaying gently and a slight breeze brushed his body.

A seal lit up, lifting up his hand he checked. The dimensional interference seal was lit. Someone or something was opening a portal near him.

Suddenly a large yellow monstrosity appeared, down the road, rolling towards him. It stopped in front of him and its 'mouth' opened. The conductor looked at him with glowing eyes.

"So you're the special request from Kazeshi?" his eyes didn't even flicker while he spoke. His mouth barely moved yet his words were clear.

With a sharp dip of his head Naruto boarded the bus.

"Bus Driver, what kind of school is Youkai Gakuen?" Naruto asked the conductor as he sat near the back of the bus. Around him the world passed by in a blur.

"It's a _different_ school. First day?" the driver's glowing eyes reflected off the rear view mirror as Naruto came into his view.

"Yes. Although I'm not exactly there to study." Naruto admitted. His thoughts were rather fixated on a blue haired girl. The world around gave way to a glowing tunnel that seemed to cause of few of his seals to light up. Glancing at his hand he hitched an eyebrow at what he saw. The dimensional interference seal and the dimension tracking seal were active.

"This is one interesting tunnel you've got here Bus Driver." They driver's eyes merely glinted as if in response to his question. The slight widening of the driver's smile the only confirmation he got that the driver understood.

Soon another world came into view, dead trees on one side and a dead ocean on the other separated from him by only a cliff. As he got off the bus he gave the driver one last look. In that moment they both knew that they had developed a form of respect for the other.

'Maybe I should have told Mikogami that someone like him was joining today…' Bus Driver thought as he leaned against his bus with a cigar in between his mouth.

"Meh" he puffed and white smoke escaped from his lips.

On the only visible path Naruto extended his senses and quickly came to several conclusions. One, the 'dead' trees that surrounded him were actually still alive albeit just barely. Secondly there were more beings of significant power here, one had the same amount as the Bus Driver. Thirdly there was a large group of people centralised in one single area.

With a trick he had learned from Miyuki he entered a partial transformation and flew off. Invisible to everything around him.

.

.

.

"We have thirty more minutes before you die scum." Tsukune lifted his head to meet Keito's. Fear swirling about in his eyes. His whole body felt numb and empty, exhausted from all his futile struggling.

Looking over the sea of faceless faces again nothing had changed. The student body seemed eager to see him die. Sparing another glance at the window that led to the headmaster's office he dropped his head once more. Tears already building up at the corners of his eyes.

Mikogami's window creaked open slightly, as if opened by an invisible force. Shizuka's eyes seemed to widen even further if that was even possible and Mikogami simply put his pen down before turning to face the window a smirk already on his face. The air suddenly shimmered and waved almost like there was a piece of cloth there. Then a figure became visible.

"I take it that you are the headmaster of this school?" Naruto asked, more of a statement than a question.

"Yes I am. I see that my friend has neglected to tell me of some things. You may call me Headmaster." While he sounded fine the barest undertone of annoyance could be felt.

Reaching into his left thigh pouch Naruto withdrew a letter and handed it to the headmaster. Unnoticeable to most Mikogami channelled a minute amount of his youkai into the letter. When the seal that proofed it was from Bus Driver sent back a minute amount of youkai in response he sent a few more tendrils of his youkai into the seal.

It was a special form of communication he and his friend had come up with. They would write a letter but the main points could be summed up and coded into brief pulses of youkai.

'Positive-Special'

'Student'

The headmaster set the letter down on his desk. Sparing a quick glance outside his window an ingenious idea formed in his mind as he could literally feel the immense power hidden behind a dam in the blonde. He couldn't tell how much power the blonde held, but he could tell it was nothing to sneeze at – even for him.

"You will be notified of you classes and dorm room later. For now why don't you head down and join the current student gathering by the Public Safety Commission?"

"Sure." The slight sway of his curtains the only sign that the new student had left. Deciding to put his paperwork away for now he turned his chair to face the gathering of the student body. Almost forgetting the presence of the near-hysterical faculty member beside him.

'Maybe I should have told him that revealing his powers and monster form here is against the rules…This will be interesting.' He clasped his hands together as his glowing eyes focused on the scene before him. The smirk never leaving his face.

.

.

.

He perched at the top of the stake that held the bound boy, invisible to most. He couldn't help but let a tiny frown form on his face as he was reminded of his childhood. Looking up at the clouds his right hand went into his shirt to finger a snowflake.

Something felt very wrong.

Suddenly silence came about as noise immediately died down. Every head in the area turned to face the doors which had been thrown open. His lackeys stood proudly at attention as he walked down the aisle which had just formed for him as the crowd parted. Silence ensued, broken by only the soft pads as he walked toward the elevated stage. In front of him several of his lackeys had just ran ahead all carrying wooden stakes. By the time he had reached the stage there were four stakes set into the ground, spaced evenly around the mass of wood which Tsukune was bound on top off.

A sombre atmosphere seemed to cover the whole area as the student body instinctively knew what those four stakes were for.

Naruto closed his hands around the snowflake, the feeling that something was wrong seemed to amplify as he watched. Trap doors sprung open and the mechanical sound of a machine running could be heard. One by one people were elevated onto the platform.

The first revealed a pink haired girl who was soaked. She seemed to be in pain as what appeared to be sparks sparked off her body occasionally.

Then a slight moan was heard as another trapdoor revealed a blue haired girl who had obvious purple bruises marring her face and her limbs. Parts of her body were swollen and one of her eyes were forced shut by the swells on her head.

A sobbing sound filled the area as the third shorter person was revealed. She didn't look physically harmed but seemed to be in extreme amounts of pain as her facial muscles were contorted and her body tensed to the extremes. In front of her lay the remains of her wand.

When the fourth came a silence, ever quieter than the first took over. It seemed to silence even everyone's thoughts. Purple hair was in disarray, her body sweaty and breathing laboured and shallow. Her right hand was swollen and red, her left disfigured and burnt. Her legs seemed to nothing more than pieces of red flesh stuck to her bones. The worst was her face, her cheeks each bore a single kanji. Her right was marked with '九' and the left '曜'. 'Kuyou' was burnt onto her face.

Her eyes seemed hollow even as her gaze never moved from her front.

Naruto's mind was in hysterics as it endured chaos while his heart started to bleed. His hand around the snowflake froze as his rational mind tried to regain control. His invisibility technique still up only as it was second nature to him.

His eyes started at her legs. It seemed like her calves up to her mid-thighs had been skinned. Her exposed muscles look wrinkled like they had had salt poured onto them. The edges of her skin seemed burnt.

Her arms were, for a lack of a better term, destroyed. The skin on her left arm was dry and cracked in places where parts of her pulsing flesh could be seen. Her right arm looked like it had been partially diced with each piece being marked by either a cross or a circle.

The sight of her would forever implant itself into his memory. Especially the brand on her face. He just felt numb as he perched there. Everything seemed to de-register in his mind. His eyes were wide open and his heart gave slow thunderous beats.

He didn't notice as Kuyou ignited a flame on his open palm. Even when the fire starters were lit he didn't seem to care. The sight of the other three girls shouting for someone to help, for someone to save them and the boy, 'Tsukune', didn't seem matter to his mind as his eyes were trained only on the bound purple haired girl.

He could recognise her, partly from memory and partly from photographs Tsurara had shown him. He could remember the excitement and joy as he finally got here. Yet his perfect day seemed to be impossible now as it flew away quicker than he could even notice.

Suddenly something within him snapped.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

A/N) Would anyone prefer it if I linked the old chapters to the current ones?

What I mean is would anyone prefer it if I did something like this below:

In the previous chapter someone died and someone lived. Now…

Constructive criticism is welcome.


	8. Chapter 8 Clarity

A/N)

Disclaimer: I hereby claim that I the author of the fanfic below do not in any shape or form own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, Rosario + Vampire and Rosario + Vampire capu2. However the ideas and storyline are mine.

On a side note, I might not follow cannon's timeline very closely. So don't be surprised if something that should have happened before or after something happens before or after something else.

On a more important note, after timing myself in terms of my writing. I realised that with my current schedule and speed, i take slightly more than a week to churn out one chapter. The only reason I've managed to keep to weekly updates so far is that I wrote a few chapters in advance before starting the story. Currently though the chapters I have to serve as a time buffer are running short. Which means that occasionally I might miss an update so that I can use that week to catch up. Sorry.

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~

**Chapter 8: Clarity**

"Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart."  
― José N. Harris, _MI VIDA: A Story of Faith, Hope and Love_

_._

_._

_._

His emotions were not vented in a vocal or explosive way. He cancelled his cloaking technique drawing the eyes of the student body. Standing to his full height he felt for the fires that had started to burn beneath him. Within a second the fires became small wisps of energy and flew into his body. Other than the burnt wood it was like there was never a fire.

With another one of his speed techniques he was suddenly in front of his first friend. Gently grabbing her chin between his thumb and index finger he lifted her head up. Their eyes met. Despite his _calm_ exterior she could still see. His eyes were apologetic and within them a fire storm raged.

When people dressed in uniforms neared them they quickly jumped back in pain after setting foot within five meters of the blonde. They crumpled onto the ground as small explosions occurred on their body, their front covered in third degree burns. Kuyou narrowed his eyes, his analytical mind working to figure out what had happened. Then he saw it, a slight distortion in the air around them. A circular barrier of air around the blonde had been super-heated. The ionised air wreaked havoc upon the bodies of anyone who dared to step into it.

He didn't know what to do next, he had neglected to learn healing techniques as he himself had a high regeneration factor. As their eyes spoke in ways their speech could never do fear, bubbled through his body.

Mizore left hand weakly moved despite the burning agony it caused, Naruto's peripheral traced her movements. Her hand went into her thigh pouch. Her eyes never broke contact with his. His heart squeezed as she lifted up a necklace – his necklace. The silver phoenix hung, stained red from her blood.

Naruto's hand fished out the snowflake to show it to her. Reassured recognition and happiness flashed in her eyes.

She was glad to see Naruto again, even if she wouldn't be able to spend any more time beside him. 'I'm going to die.' She was just happy and relieved to be able to see him one last time.

Naruto could tell. He himself had had that look too many times in the past. The fatalistic acceptance in Mizore's eyes made his heart go icy.

"Mizore…" Naruto whispered out roughly and brokenly.

"Naruto…" her lips formed a smile, even with the brand she still looked beautiful Naruto thought. His own mouth mirrored a small amount of her smile despite the sadness as tears started to form. Her eyes slowly closed shut. Taking off his necklace he placed it in Mizore's right palm. Closing both her palms he placed her hands over her chest.

He looked at her form for a few more moments. Then he ripped his gaze off of her. Moving one of his pre-made seals from his hand to his feet he formed a barrier around Mizore that would keep the heat out. He moved another one of his seals onto his feet and he marked the ground below him with a masking seal, most of the student body wouldn't be able to identify him as the cause for the soon to be enormous reservoir tap. With his last rational though Naruto sent out four controlled disks of fire which sped off. Then the world became nothing but a blur.

'Keep my promise safe Mizore. I've been reckless in my training, it's low on energy already. If you don't wake up and recharge it soon it's going to melt. Stay safe while I handle this...vermin.'

Kuyou looked on with a smirk as the interloper's power increased. He would finally have a challenge. Widening his eyes a fraction he suddenly stepped to his right. Mere moments later a fist appeared where his head had been. The muscles in Naruto's hand rippled. He started a deadly dance with the interloper. His amused smirk never leaving his face. Suddenly his opponent stopped.

Looking back at his opponent's face he froze for a moment. Pure rage and ice cold orbs reflected off of his opponent's face. It caused just a small bit of fear to be sown into his mind.

Suddenly Kuyou found himself pushed slightly backwards as another release of energy much greater than the last washed over the area. The student body seemed to be imitating frozen statues while around him his men dropped onto their knees. 'Weaklings.' Kuyou mentally sneered.

Skipping his first transformation Kuyou went straight into his true kitsune form. His clothes burning away to reveal his chiseled torso. The grin on his face growing wider as his opponent didn't even seem fazed – he had found a worthy prey.

His four neon blue tails behind him spun in a circle as fire built up in a circle from the tip of his tails. He shoot a wheel of blue fire toward his opponent.

A loud explosion came as smoke blanketed the area. It wasn't over though, Kuyou could still feel his opponent's presence. Twisting his body left, folding his left leg and pushing his right leg out he made it just in time to dodge another fist that would have taken his head had he been just a split second slower.

Kuyou jumped back and out of the smoke cloud. His tails spun again, creating another wheel of fiery energy. He waited for the cloud to dissipate and when it cleared his opponent stood facing him, his cold blue eyes still trained on him. Kuyou launched two wheels. Their paths were curved and they closed in on his enemy on both sides.

The seed of fear in Kuyou's mind was watered as the wheels of fire seemed to turn into small wisps of fire like the one he had started earlier and entered his enemy's body.

As if to mock his further his opponent's power suddenly rocketed. A pillar of white energy surrounded the blonde before dissipating. However the energy increase stayed. For the first time in this school Kuyou felt true fear. Even the great barrier which protected the school seemed to shake as it was strained to contain such a large amount of energy.

Kuyou didn't even feel it. A beam of light shot from his opponent's eyes and pierced his right arm. The wet squishy sound of his hand hitting the ground beside him was lost to him as he was paralyzed by the amount of killer intent (KI) coming from his opponent.

The energy kept increasing making it harder for him to breathe. Around him he could see students and his lackeys crumpling onto the ground, wheezing as fear kept their eyes wide open. The air around the boy seemed to distort as the very molecules that made up the air around his opponent – no, monster became charged with energy.

Raw unbridled energy was leaking out of the monster that he faced, that air became saturated with a fine yellow mist that floated around in swirls.

The blue haired succubus trembled where she stood, unable to take her eyes off the ocean of power that was in front of her disguised as a person. She had mentally asked what kind of monster could have made such a controlled disk to cut her bonds minutes before. Now she wasn't sure she wanted to know. Suddenly her whole body jumped as a hand landed on her shoulder, whipping her head around she saw that it was Moka who looked on the verge of falling. Yet her trembling did not stop.

She could see that despite the fact that her friend had managed to make her way here she was still affected by the energy leaked from the monster that faced Kuyou. Moka's eyes were shaky and her knees threatened to buckle. Her left hand was closed around the smaller hand of another girl.

Yukari seemed weak, and dazed but even with the pain evident on her scrunched face her fear seemed to be covering everything else up. In the witch's left hand she held a light blue star, the part of her destroyed wand that was still connected to her.

Moka seemed to be looking up, with her presence she managed to take her eyes off the monster and follow her line of sight, squinting painfully with her eyes.

Her heart jumped as she saw Tsukune, he had been freed of his bonds like them. However he was on his knees and his breathing was in parts. She thought she saw Tsukune's eyes flash crimson for a moment but shook it off as her fear playing tricks on her.

Suddenly the object of her affections crumpled onto the ground and fell. Unfortunately he had been placed at the top of the pile of wood.

She heard Moka gasp beside her which had managed to break her out her fear induced state. Unleashing her wings with a painful effort she gave a mighty flap and headed to intercept Tsukune.

Her world froze as the pile of wood suddenly lit up into full blown flames.

Kuyou was desperate, he launched wheel after wheel of fire at his opponent. Every single one disappeared when they got within a five meter radius of the blonde. His actions became uncoordinated and frantic. Haphazardly pushing most of his youkai into one more wheel he launched it. This wheel several times the size of his previous ones and more than a hundred times the power of his normal wheels.

He watched as a loud explosion echoed from where the monster had stood. A large cloud of smoke covered the area and he could feel a twisted laugh building up.

"I did it.. I killed HIM!" Kuyou's demented laughter poured out of his lungs as he lost all semblance of control over his body's expressions.

He failed to notice one thing everyone else did. The pressure from the monster's immense power was still there. A sudden wave of raw power pushed from the epicentre and the smoke was easily dispersed.

From the partially burnt pile of wood Tsukune lay. His body was slightly charred but his eyes had been replaced by red orbs. Vertical slits flashed as a large uncontrolled wave of youkai washed over the area. The combined presence of the three sent almost every other person who had managed to stay awake into their slumbers. His eyes kept flashing, his youkai signature flickering. Seconds later his unstable presence disappeared as he collapsed into the soft arms of a succubus.

Kuyou stopped laughing as his eyes widened in disbelief, he took a step back as shock tore through his system. Naruto stood where he had been the whole time. Not a single centimetre of him looked out of place.

Mere moments later, Naruto had appeared in front of Kuyou, his fist mere centimetres in front of Kuyou. Yet the blow didn't connect.

Even as Kuyou looked at death in the face, his pride still influenced him. He gritted his teeth in rage, his opponent was taunting him. Telling him that he had no hope of winning, and that every extra second he would live was up to the monster's whim.

However when he looked into them monster's eyes he realised the monster wasn't really a monster. His opponent had monstrous power, but he wasn't a monster at heart. Kuyou couldn't help but let a smirk play onto his face. If he played his cards right he would live. Carefully avoiding the fist that was still pointed at his head he stepped to the side.

"You have to understand. I was merely trying to punish a rule breaker. The other four, the vampire, witch, succubus and snow wom.." Kuyou's words were caught in his throat as he noticed the pure unadulterated fury spark in his opponent's eyes.

Forcing his emotions aside he started again. "The other four were his accomplices, they had to be interrogated." Kuyou could feel his chances of living past this day increase with every word he spoke.

'Interrogation? What they did to Mizore was _interrogation_?' two sides in Naruto's head warred. True, Mizore was his friend, his first friend to be exact but if she had become bad and a criminal could he really still support her?

Kuyou's analytical mind once more worked overtime as he did his best to decipher the boy's emotions through the tiniest of hints he gave on his face. His mind already on the way to figuring out the boy's relationship to the snow girl.

"Besides what are friends anyway? Friends come and go. So what if you lost someone like her?" It was as though Kuyou was testing the waters, seeing how far he could go.

'Mizore is my friend, but what is a friend really?'

"She lusted for that human boy every day, competing with the other four for the boy's _affections_. Should someone like you really waste this much effort over a useless whore?"

'Mizore a useless whore? She would never become someone like this - would she?' Naruto's confused orbs set their sights on the purple haired girl who lay protected by his barrier.

Tsurara had already told him that Mizore had found her love. His heart had squeezed then, much like it did now, but he still didn't know why.

His eyes drifted to her closed hands above her heart. Where the reminder to his promise was held. His mind was confused, but his heart remembered.

_"__We__'ll always be friends, no matter what. It'__s a promise.__" He had spoken for them both._

Hadn't he promised? Hadn't he promised to himself to never break his promises?

_"Would…would you…accompany me to pick snowwhites when I turn seventeen."_

_"__Yes Mizore-chan. I promise.__"_

_She presented it to him with both her hands as she looked into Naruto'__s eyes. __"This is our promise."_

Hadn't the snowflake been his reminder, his promise and his gift?

'Thank you Mizore.' Opening his shut eyes with recollected calm he moved. Before anyone knew it he was behind Kuyou and with a simple hard chop Kuyou was out like a light.

He wouldn't make any decisions that couldn't be changed until he knew what was going on. If Mizore had truly went down the wrong path he would lead her back. If she hadn't then several weeds would be weeded before long.

After all he was a friend to Mizore, although their relationship was very close, they were just friends right? He had no right to feel anything but joy for her if she had found her love – Naruto unconvincingly convinced himself.

.

.

.

A single nervous sweat had run down his back. For a moment he had been afraid that his idea would backfire and destroy the great barrier.

Turning around he went back to his work. Shizuka lay crumpled on the ground beside his window, having fainted from the pressure. He had to give the boy credit, he sure held a lot of power.

Although within moments his mind was somewhere else, already thinking of ways to repay the favour to Bus Driver.

.

.

.

The slight stirring of wind was the only hint the headmaster needed.

"What kind of _school _are you running headmaster?" The question was asked calmly, but Mikogami could sense the veiled rage.

Smoothly setting his pen down mind-stroke, he subtly straightened his back. With his hood down and his glowing eyes he made for a rather intimidating image.

"The faculty and the Public Safety Commission have had some _agreements_." The damnable smirk on his face never faltered despite a lack of response from the student.

Naruto's lips set in a tight line as his eyes narrowed.

"On a side note your dorm room is ready. You may collect your key at the front desk of the school office." Practically ignoring his presence the Headmaster easily turned back to his work.

The clone had already left, to complete his mission.

.

.

.

Her name was softly mumbled under his breath as he looked longingly at the girl. Several clones were hidden around the dorm room for protection while a few others were drawing a summoning seal on the ground.

Placing his right hand over his heart he tried to sooth the pain, both mentally and physically. He had actually fallen to his knees when he stuck a sucker in his mouth. The power drain now more painful and tiring as he reserves were now much larger. It was through a large amount of will power that he had recovered so fast. He mentally noted the amount of power he had now for making limiter seals later. It was the power drain from the low temperature that actually hurt.

Taking her soft and awfully pale hand into his he placed the tip of his finger at her wrist. That did nothing but reassure him that she was still alive. He didn't know what her normal pulse should be. However the rapid beating and feverish state that she was in were clear indicators that she was not fine. His worried eyes gazed over her body, he had bandaged her limbs as best as he could with the torn bed sheets, but he didn't know what to do for her face.

Resisting the urge to trace his fingers on the marks, to prove that they were just fake, he settled for looking at her face. The displayed pain resonated with his but the small hints of resignation and peace worried him. Would it be selfish if he wanted her to keep fighting? So that he may see her _alive_ again.

"Don't you dare leave me now Mizore. Don't you dare be content with just seeing me one last time!" his harsh whisper was coupled with his strained muscles as desperation threatened to ensnare his mind. His red hair, lined with the occasional streak of gold fell into his vision as he lowered his head to the phoenix on her chest, outlined by the edge of the snowflake.

Fortunately his clones had been created with clear objectives in mind not to mention the separate chakra and youkai systems. When the seal had finished it glowed slightly before a plume of smoke appeared with a complimenting 'poof'.

Miyuki with her guards raised located the one who had summoned her with confused eyes. About to reprimand her grandson for needlessly calling her here her words died before they were even formed as she saw a _pleading_ look in Naruto's eyes.

The desperation that swirled in his eyes made her pause, before her eyes were led to the figure beside him as he refocused his eyes back on the bandaged girl.

A soft gasp made it way out of her throat as the brands on her cheeks got her attention – they just looked… wrong. Noticing they bandages next she could see that some of them were stained red, blood having soaked into them. The torn state of the girl's clothes did little to sooth her worries.

She did not realise when her legs had moved her closer to the girl, nor did she realise that her hand had reached out to stroke the marks on the girl's face. Though when a firm hand clamped over hers just centimetres from her face she took notice. Naruto's eyes locked with hers and an emotion she hadn't ever seen focused on her by her own grandson threw her out of her daze. Barely controlled anger lay within his spuriously calm eyes.

Shooting him an apologetic look she refocused herself. Holding her palm facing downwards a slight blue aura appeared around her hand. Hovering a few centimetres above the girl she moved her hand from head to toe.

When she was done the green glow died, slowly withdrawing her hand to gain more time she hesitantly formed her next words. It would not be what Naruto wanted to hear, but could she really lie to her grandson in such a situation?

Slowly stilling her sides by her side in a bid to gain more time her eyes saw Naruto's. The naked pleading in his eyes was enough to make her forgo any attempt at watering it down.

"Her wounds are tainted with very potent youkai and the marks on her face have .." her words had gotten stuck in her throat as she could literally feel Naruto's sorrow saturating the room. She quickly and silent cleared her throat.

"The _wounds_ on her face have been laced with chemicals that make it… extremely hard for them to heal... impossible even if you grafted skin…but with my abilities there is a slight chance I can heal her."

"Then what's the problem?!" Naruto's question was more of a controlled shout as his body tensed. His eyes had gone back to look at Mizore's sleeping form. Now that she noticed it she was a bit unnerved, despite the girl's injuries she looked too peaceful. Her breathing was slow and calm while her face showed hints of peace even through all the pain etched onto it.

"It will take weeks for her limbs to allow her basic mobility again. Even longer for her muscles to heal to their usual healthy states. But there is no guarantee she'll make a full recovery. She will probably be scarred for the rest of her life…" Miyuki finished, concern in her voice for not just the girl but also Naruto.

Naruto's head was down, his red hair shadowed his face. The silence in the room much too thick to be cut. Miyuki silently dropped a beacon seal and sent out her youkai in specific patterns to a certain direction. Seconds later a soft poof, unheard by Naruto, marked her exit. She had to collect her medicine, energy alone wouldn't help. Naruto would need time.

.

.

.

Bandages filled an empty trash bin, the white having been stained rusty brown. Miyuki sat beside Mizore, gently applying several chemicals and occasionally injecting her youkai into Mizore. The gently rise and fall of her chest the only sign she was still alive. Her face was relaxed and emotionless. Her body like a doll without its strings.

On her left Tsurara mixed several herbs together, peeling off frozen tears from her face every few minutes. Naruto sat at another corner of the room, his lifeless eyes were trained on Mizore. In the same clothes he wore yesterday. His things were still unpacked, his door locked shut with seals. Naruto's hands lay limply by his sides while his legs were sprawled in front of him.

A poof marked the presence of Kazeshi as he used the beacon seal to teleport into the dorm room. In his hands several more ingredients requested by Miyuki. Placing the materials down on a table he paused a second to take in the scene in front of him. The solemn atmosphere seemed to seep into his skin. Plopping himself down beside Naruto he couldn't help but wince when he saw the look on Naruto's face. It was just like how his had been.

"You should get up and take a breath of fresh air." Kazeshi said absentmindedly as he looked at Miyuki and Tsurara. Naruto didn't respond. Instead a small cracking sound came from his mouth as Naruto bit down on the sucker in his mouth.

"You should get to your school work, maybe even go train a bit." Kazeshi continued. From his peripheral he could see Naruto's muscles tensing slightly.

"You shouldn't just sit here Naruto." Kazeshi went on, this time he could very noticeably see the boy's muscles tensing up as a myriad of emotions flashed through his eyes.

"Sitting down here, lost and confused isn't going to help Mizore." This time Naruto did jump, his legs pushed him up as Naruto's face came to meet Kazeshi. Anger and confusion reigned in his face, his arms fisted by his sides. His eyes wide and strained as minute amounts of his controlled energy leaked out. His eyes pleaded – what was he supposed to do?

"Think Naruto, you could do something even I couldn't. Where did that spirit of yours go? You spent five years trying hour after hour to meet her again despite the chance of it actually happening being close to none. Now that you've finally gotten to see her, are you just going to give up at this point?" His wisdom seemed to flow through his words as he talked some sense into Naruto.

Kazeshi tiredly pushed himself up, his own eyes flashed as he was reminded of how he had been. After he and Miyuki had seemingly lost all their daughters he had broken down. He wouldn't eat or sleep for days. Then his heart took a softer note as he remembered how Miyuki had saved him. She had talked some sense into him, although it had involved some fighting.

He didn't look back. He knew that he had managed to do what he had to do. Kazeshi sent out some of his youkai, within moments he felt a familiar pull by the beacon seal back on the island. On a lighter note he let a small grin form.

'I'm going to miss making dimensional doors. Naruto's seal had worked, but it takes up a lot much nature energy to move the existing tunnel or create a new one. It wouldn't make sense to grow those large trees everywhere. Besides even I don't fully understand his seal. I guess for now I'm going to have to rely on summoning seals.' With an animated sob his presence was gone from the room.

Tsurara's concerned eyes followed Naruto as he left the room. Miyuki much too focused on Mizore to notice. Tsurara turned her vision back onto Mizore.

'What will you do Mizore?' Tsurara's unspoken question seemed more focused on the silver phoenix which lay on her daughter's chest, outlined by the snowflake her daughter had given Naruto.

She could see sincere gifts when she saw them. The silver phoenix had intricate designs on it. The snowflakes and eyes probably painstakingly carved by its creator. Then there was the necklace, she could still remember the months of effort Mizore had put into learning how to make that shape. Then to make it out of one single ice crystal alone - a deed only able to be done when a snow-onna was truly sincere.

.

.

.

His blue orbs gazed upon the night sky. The stars twinkled, the twinkles reflected on his eyes. Why did Mizore affect him so? Was a friend supposed to affect a person so much?

His hand instinctively reach up, only to find the snowflake missing. Suddenly he felt cold, the darkness of the night seemed to creep up on him. A feeling, familiar but unwelcome dwelled at the bottom of his gut. He felt alone.

Involuntarily shivering he drew in his legs to his chest. The gloomy design of the buildings and the seemingly dead trees around him added to the darkness.

Everything was silent. Even the insects that usually lived in the night made no noise. The air was still and cold. Memories ran through his mind as his eyes glazed over.

Mizore's smiling face seemed to stick in his mind, whenever he would feel an unexplainable tug at his heart whenever she would smile at him.

Then like a scene from a nightmare the picture of her branded face overtook everything. Yet unlike in a nightmare a voice rang from the back of his head, it questioned him, asked him what he was going to do about it – challenging him. A familiar glint appeared in his eyes as his usual determination came rushing back.

.

.

.

Naruto stood on Miyuki's right, slightly behind her as he watched, analysing everything she did. The silence in the room was thick, but was broken every time Naruto would ask what a certain medicine did and Miyuki replying.

Naruto watched her actions with neutral focus, but whenever his eyes would drift to Mizore they would soften. Behind him a shadow clone took down everything Miyuki said.

"Second day of treatment."… The header at the top of the page read. Every hour he would create a clone and it would dispel, sending new information to the rest of his clones.

Once again the island which he had been stuck on for five years, was filled with batches of his clones as they ran around experimenting with seals.

He shivered as he gained the memory of one of his monitor clones. There was little progress. However what was unsettling were the fact that when some of his clones absorbed too much nature energy from a seal backfiring they would turn into small phoenix statues. Those clones didn't dispel, didn't send any chakra or youkai and they didn't send any memories back. When he had worked on the dimensional seal the nature chakra was always focused onto a medium, like a wooden door. Now he was experimenting injecting nature chakra into living beings and the results were not good.

Twirling the sucker in his mouth he turned his attention back to Mizore with his eyes rimmed with concern. She had yet to wake up despite Miyuki's best efforts. His eyes went to her chest again, he couldn't help but reassure himself again that she was still alive by checking the slow rhythmic rise and fall of her chest.

The faint green glow that had bathed the room for hours died as Miyuki lowered her hands back to her side. Relaxing her tense muscles she went home to rest, her body already strained to the limit from channelling various amounts of healing energy the for hours on end. Without a word she left.

Just as she did a small indicator seal on the dorm room door lit up again. That seal had been lighting up once every few hours, warning its creator that someone or something had been trying to exert some of their energy into the room. With a slight hint of annoyance he turned his attention back to Mizore. She would have had been moved to their home but her condition had prevented such an action. Naruto's eyes went to her closed ones.

Another seal lit up, like the other one it would light up every few hours warning its creator that someone or something was trying to physically break the door, or that someone was knocking on the door rather _forcefully_. Ignoring it like all the previous times he crawled into his futon, his body facing Mizore.

.

.

.

Thousands dressed in black stood. Solemnly they bid their fallen leader farewell. He had died a shinobi's death, Sarutobi Hiruzen had fallen in duty.

Earlier in the day the whole village was in a festive mood. The final phase of the chunin examinations were to be held today and the child prodigy Sasuke Uchiha was participating.

However all hell had broken loose when Sasuke's opponent in the finals, Gaara who was revealed to be the container of the one tailed beast went berserk. He had allowed the demon to control his body. The lunatic demon together with wave after wave of Sound and Sand ninja had caused chaos to erupt within the village.

The orchestrator, Orochimaru ex-student of the Sandaime Hokage and Snake sennin, had trapped Sarutobi within a barrier. There to fought, one for twisted humour and revenge, the other for the sake of his village.

Orochimaru's trusted elite squad, the Sound Four, maintained the barrier as they soaked in the chaos that ensued around them. It wasn't long before the Third Hokage had found Orochimaru's favourite sword, the Kusunagi, deep within his chest. Their leader's laugh echoed throughout the village as Leaf ninja died left and right.

Off in the distance the weakest of the Bijuu raged, levelling buildings and squashing people as it wreaked havoc. Orochimaru's joy was cut short however when squads after squads of ninja dressed in black coveralls with white animal masks appeared everywhere within the village.

His anger showed on his face as the one tailed Bijuu was brought down, distracted by large masses of earth sent toward it and sealed by a giant trap made of ink. He gripped his sword with an increasingly tightening grip as he prepared to personally ensure Konoha's destruction.

"Orochimaru, you are to be executed for crimes against the leaf." Ducking to his left due to years of trained instincts he dodged what would have been a fatal blow. Cursing himself for letting his anger cloud his senses he revaluated his situation. The Sound Four was engaged in combat with a squad of ANBU while at least thirty of leaf ninja surrounded him, their masks all bearing a hidden symbol which said 'root'.

Seeing the symbol Orochimaru's face grew a grin. His free hand slowly inching towards his pouch.

"I see that Danzo hasn't keeled over yet. I wonder how he'll react when he learns that a certain snake has certain information that could potentially harm his _organisation__._"

The slight shifting of the members made his grin grow wider as they parted to allow an old man to pass. His walking stick making sharp taps whenever they impacted the hard tiles of the roof. Danzo's face set in its permanently stoic expression was revealed to the snake.

"Orochimaru, you will only get this offer once. Leave the leaf village and never return, on account of our past _dealings_." His voice while stoic had a slight undertone of irritation.

A full blown smirk appeared on Orochimaru's face. Sure he wouldn't be able to guarantee the leaf's destruction today, but if Danzo took over it would be much worse than anything he could ever do.

The slight wishing of leaves marked his leave as he went to gather his more important personnel. The rest would serve as his distraction.

.

.

.

Naruto hitched his eyebrow as he walked down the hallway. The students seemed normal. Had his large release of energy caused a form of amnesia? A week couldn't have had made them forget about that day already could it?

Shrugging his shoulders he referred to the slip of paper in his hands. Looking up he checked the sign. This was his class.

He knocked twice, before stepping in the classroom. He was greeted by the sight of a woman dressed in a white blouse with an orange skirt. What caught his attention though were the slight twitching of her furry ears on her head and her orange tail waving about lazily.

Looking lazily over the rest of the class he subtly sent out a small wave of his inner energy. Mentally gauging down the power levels of those in class he quickly noticed the group of girls which surrounded a boy with very low power levels. Then to his momentary confusion he saw a flash of recognition in their eyes. It seemed only those two girls in the class remembered his little show. He noticed more than a couple of loving and dreamy eyes looking at him and more than a couple of hate and envy filled eyes shooting death glares at him.

"Class, we have a new student. He just joined us a few days ago." The teacher announced as she remembered her memo from yesterday. Feminine squeals of excitement came from a few parts of the class while the mood of many of the boys in the class darkened.

"My name is Naruto, nice to meet you all." With a small nod he ran his eyes over all of theirs as a simple form or recognition. He walked towards the end of the class where he prepared to take an empty seat. On the way passing by the small group whose eyes seemed to follow him as he moved. Both in showed caution as their eyes narrowed on him.

"You can't sit there Naruto-san. Mizore already sits there." Pausing in mid-step for a split second he took a sharp turn and took a seat beside hers.

Naruto was met with the smiling face of Tsukune Aono. Acknowledging the boy with a small nod he turned his attention elsewhere, ignoring the questioning gazes of a vampire and a succubus. Shizuka had already started her lecture, oblivious to the building tension between Naruto and two girls in her class.

Naruto's eyebrow twitched as the succubus's twelfth attempt to talk to him hit him in the face. Picking up the piece of paper he incinerated it with a short and small burst of fire, unnoticed to anyone but Kurumu.

An animated tick mark pulsed on her forehead as she pushed down the irritation that threatened to make a fool out of her. The first note had been very straightforward. "Who are you really?" Every other note after that had followed similar lines, except with increasing levels of agitation in her hand writing.

She took out her pen and another piece of paper. Halfway through her writing her note suddenly burnt. Jumping in her seat her wide eyes stared in shock at the small mound of ashes on her table. Her pen having been flung across the room.

"Ouch!" Miss Shizuka turned around, with fire in her eyes as she eyed the small pen that had hit her in the head. Immediately noticing Kurumu's body position she dashed forward. Her claws bared as she hissed.

"Kuruno. Detention. Four hours." She stressed every word as her claws neared the succubus's face. Her tail waving behind her slowly and warningly.

Snapping her head to face her teacher Kurumu found herself leaning backwards as her teacher's claws came too close for comfort.

"But, but it was an accident! Naruto made me do it!" she squeaked out as her eyes jumped from claw to claw.

Shizuka head whipped up and her eyes landed on Naruto. Immediately her posture softened. Naruto's sparkling blue orbs and his seemingly innocent face cleansed her heart of an ill thoughts she might have had for him. Shizuka's apologetic eyes seemed to ask for his forgiveness.

Turning her attention back to Kurumu her righteous rage came back full force.

"Don't you dare insinuate that someone as kind and innocent as Naruto would do such a things. For that you've gotten yourself another hour of detention." Her stern face left no room for argument.

Kurumu's mouth hung wide open. Her eyes looked back at Naruto, then back to Shizuka's back. Muffling her indignant cry she could only sit still and let her rage simmer.

Moka's glanced back worriedly. Naruto had returned to his stoic mask as he paid a bit of his attention towards the lesson. Tsukune was still oblivious to what had just happened between Naruto and Kurumu, only giving Kurumu a sorry look for her detention.

.

.

.

Naruto walked through the forest. The dead tress seemed to stretch out to him as he walked past. The bats seemed to watch him with their glowing eyes. The world around him was devoid of most life. The school's great barrier was actually very large. Near the edge of the great barrier he had clones scampering about, drawing lines and symbols on the ground and surrounding landforms. He had scouted the whole area marked by his seal and the surrounding area for as far as a few kilometres.

Focusing his chakra he channelled it into a specific black line drawn on the ground in front of him. Green chakra flowed from his hands and flowed into the line, crawling inch by inch. They split into two channels and circled two individual circles within the seal. A sapling grew in both circles, growing at astounding rates.

His muscles strained as he fought to keep the output of wood chakra constant for nearly an hour. His breathing grew slightly laboured as he could already feel his energy reserves dwindling.

Then when they had gotten to height of about ten metres the green lines took on a light shade of green which started from the two trees. Wiping sweat off his brow he stood back up. The two trees which stood at the two sides of the barrier grew at slower rates, but fast none the less. They would keep growing until they were fully mature. The green lines that wound around their trunks pulsed every few seconds as waves of nature chakra coursed through his seal. An area of about half a kilometre square seemed to shimmer before everything went back to normal. His seals and clones disappeared from his sight. Walking through the barrier he smirked.

He had taken a risk and it worked. He had successfully integrated nature chakra into a barrier and cloaking shield. His clones had already gone off to secure materials to build a small house here.

The trees within his barrier seemed to straighten as leaves sparsely grew on their branches and the dead ground in his barrier turned green as fresh grass sprouted.

.

.

.

Her twin orbs slowly opened as she took in the dim light that came through the windows. Her confused eyes wandered as she tried to remember how she had gotten here. As she tried to lift her left hand she found it much harder than usual. Bringing her hand up she noticed the bandages wrapped around it.

_"Are you having fun yet Mizore-chan? Kuyou's face flashed as his twisted emphasis on chan more than annoyed her. Her lip was bleeding from her biting down on it to stop screaming._

_"__No?__" Mizore gritted her teeth as he pushed the searing hot needle all the way down to the bone._

Mizore jerked upright, wincing painfully as pain flooded her body from her sudden movement having to bite her lips to stifle a scream. Looking at her own body she realised that all her limbs were wrapped in white bandages, her torso had a few patches while two patches covered her cheeks. The painful memory of her torture rushed back to her.

Her panicked eyes darted from place to place never resting for more than a moment on anything thing. Then a clinking sound got her attention.

Her eyes snapped onto the source, her necklace lay on the ground. The blue eyes of the silver phoenix still caught her attention. Almost spontaneously she noticed a snowflake beside it. Her shaky hand reached down to pick both objects up, tolerating the pain that shot through her body. She ran her thumb over the smooth ice, the single crystal was still intact. Yet the blue glow it once possessed had been dulled.

Without thinking she sent some of her youkai into the crystal. Its faint blue glow quickly bathed her hand as it got recharged by its creator – but where was the person its creator had entrusted it to?

Her latest memory of Naruto flashed in her eyes and her heart clenched. Hadn't she accepted death? Naruto's _begging_ eyes seemed to weigh down on her heart. Naruto had never begged as far as she could remember, plead yes, but never beg. Her fingers slowly caressed the necklaces in her hands as their cords became intertwined.

Intertwined, much like a particular phoenix and a yuki-onna, but in what way?

~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~_}{_~


End file.
